


Red And Wasting

by gingerinafez



Category: Homestuck
Genre: F/F, Gen, Homestuck AU, Humanstuck, M/M, Major character death - Freeform, ish, superhero au, superpower au, that's the only reason for graphic warning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-23
Updated: 2015-06-29
Packaged: 2018-04-05 18:27:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 17
Words: 23,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4190355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gingerinafez/pseuds/gingerinafez
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Karkat Vantas woke up alone and angry, that was normal. The boy in the red jacket soon to meet him was not. But even Karkat would soon discover, he wasn't so 'normal' himself. After escaping one complex life full of crime and tribulations, he is promptly dropped into another. This one consists of a boy who can freeze time, another who can become wind, a girl who can manipulate space, and another who can read minds. Not to mention his two companions and himself also seem to have acquired new talents.<br/>But who gave them these powers? What does it have to do with his past? How will he find these things out when he himself can't even access his own abilities?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. "Shit Storm"

**Author's Note:**

  * For [death_is_always_free](https://archiveofourown.org/users/death_is_always_free/gifts), [happy early birthday](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=happy+early+birthday), [i hope this isn't crap](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=i+hope+this+isn%27t+crap).



> That summary is a bit misleading, I'm pretty bad at summaries. I hope you enjoy my superhero au! Thanks for reading!

Something was wrong.

His stomach didn’t hurt. That was new. Yeah he felt exhausted but, that was normal. Wait, was he comfortable? Yes, he decided, definitely comfy. He was lying in a bed- he hadn’t slept in a bed in over a month now. This was wrong.

Karkat opened his eyes to an unbelievably white room; stupid hospitals.

Oh, he was in a hospital. How did he get to the hospital?

The warm sheets invited him to snuggle down a bit while he thought over the past twenty four hours. At least- he thought in a rush a panic- he hoped it was twenty four hours. After a deep breath he reminded himself that he was just dying of starvation, no big deal.

A scoff escaped into the empty room. Yeah right. Living on the streets for a month, no big deal. Homeless at sixteen, no big deal. Father murdered, family rejecting him, no contact with the only people he trusted, and possibly a concerned Samaritan about to ask questions, no, big, fucking-

The door opened. A scrawny kid about his age walked in. “You’re awake.” His voice held only the slightest impression of surprise.

Karkat looked at the kid. He had seen him around while he was on the streets, the stranger had always left him a 20. Not that he ever got a good look at his mysterious benefactor, only a flurry of a red jacket, a tint of sunglasses, and a sweep of blond hair. Now this unnamed stranger stood before him, after having closed the door. The red hoodie was ever present, so were the aviators, hiding his eyes. The kid’s face was unreadable. It was unnerving. A kid that scrawny should not be so intimidating.

“I’m Dave.”

Dave looked at the kid lying in the hospital bed. He seemed better than when he was living under the bridge near his house. Dave wondered where his tattered old sweater was taken too after they got him in the hospital gown. Homeless appeared small in the mess of sheets, his dark hair contrasting a shockingly pale face. Those freckles stood out like stars.  The stars did not reach his eyes though; eyes that pierced him like daggers, accusing him of help, most likely. A kid that small should not look so defiant, it would be adorable if he hadn’t almost died last night.

”Karkat,” he introduced himself.

It was silent for a moment. Karkat searched the room while Dave sat down; a little too relaxed, into a chair beside the bed. The hospital room was normal, small, and void of much furniture, nothing to pay attention too, nothing to excuse conversation with whoever may or may not have just fucked up his life.

Well, there was one thing.

“Why is the heart monitor covered?”

Dave sighed. “Would you like the shit storm now or after you’ve recovered a bit?”

Well wasn’t that blunt. “Shit storm? Hey fuckwad, I’ve been through hell already if you haven’t fucking noticed,” Karkat scoffed in spite of trying to stay calm. “Shit storm…” the word trailed off. “My fucking life is a shit storm!” He was just getting warmed up; he had been harboring this since he left! And this… this… this fucking idiot just decided to…. Listen?

Dave didn’t look surprised, or angry, or… anything, aside from a minute perk in one eyebrow. People were usually sputtering by now, only to have Karkat cut them off. But this guy was just-

“Go on,” he said.

Karkat couldn’t do it. No with someone who was obviously brain dead… or thoughtful. The silence was emphasized by the soundless heart monitor.

“Is that a yes on the shit storm?” Dave asked with, what was that, sarcasm? Karat gave a slight nod.

“That’s a hemodynamic cardiac monitor, all it does is measure you’re heartrate by blood flow, not electrically like other ones. And you’re blood isn’t registering as flowing, exactly.”

Dave leaned forward a bit, trying to read the other boy. Karkat’s eyes had widened, his mouth opened a bit. And, to Dave’s amusement, he laughed. It was the most _well fucking fuck me_ laugh he had ever heard.

Karkat reached to the monitor beside his bed and ripped of the piece of paper that had been taped on to it, and sure enough, a flat line was waiting. For the first time ever, Dave saw the mysterious kid smile. Sure it had a hint of fear to it, but the rest was sheer excitement. Tough guy act aside, Karkat looked at Dave, paused, and said, “Well this shit storm just got interesting.”

 

At that moment man with the most _triangular_ glasses stepped in. “Dave, stop flirting with the guy. We got to get him out of here before we start to look suspicious.” He tossed a bundle of clothes at Dave.

 “Alright Bro, we’ll be out in five,” Dave replied. The man took one glance at Karkat, nodded, and left.

Before Karkat could even ask, Dave threw the clothes on him and instructed, “Get dressed. We paid off the nurses but even that only gets you so far, and we got to get you out of here fast, shit storm begins now, dude.”

Karkat didn’t need to be told twice. He threw the sheets off, jumped out of the bed… and proceeded to fall right into Dave. Dave had expected that much, and caught the alarmingly wobbly stranger by the waist. He looked up at Karkat, who had braced his hands against the back of the chair and who looked more alarmed then he had when he saw the flat line. Karkat managed a meager, “I-“

“-should probably get dressed _slowly_ ,” Dave finished for him. Karkat nodded, wishing he wasn’t just starring back at his own reflection in those goddamn sunglasses inches away from his face. This was just a _fan-fucking-tastic_ day.

Dave stood up, hands moving to secure Karkat’s arms. He helped him sit on the edge of the bed. “I think I can manage from here thank you,” Karkat noted. Dave shrugged and began to turn around when-“Wait.” He faced Karkat, who was now a furious shade of red, and eyeing the gown he was wearing like it was crawling with roaches. Then, in the faintest of voices, “Can you untie this fucking cotton death trap?”

Karkat didn’t hold out much sympathy for nurses, but on that day he silently thanked whoever had allowed him to keep his underwear on.

Of course Dave didn’t know this, but that didn’t seem to deter him. With the slightest possibility of a smirk, Dave walked to the other side of the bed. It only took a moment to untie the five loosely knotted stings in the back.

He then turned around and listened to Karkat’s struggles. He was glad Karkat couldn’t see the restraint it was taking no to laugh, not with occasional “fuck” and “shit” and the eventual, “shit, shit, shit, SHIT!” followed by a painful _flop!_

”Goddamnit we don’t time for this,” Dave muttered. He knelt down by the angry ball of human, who was wrestling to put pants on lying on the floor.

“I told you I don’t need-“

“Just shut up, would ya?” Dave cut him off. Karkat was offended, then confused, then flustered in a matter of seconds. Dave had placed his hand on Karkat’s and closed his eyes.

“Um-“but Dave shushed him.

Karkat felt a lurch, like when you are about to fall asleep but instead if feels like falling.

Dave let go of his hand and stood back up.

“What did you do?” Karkat asked.

“I gave you time to put you’re fucking pants on,” Dave replied. That’s when Karkat realized he was lying on the floor, shirtless, with his pants halfway up his legs.

“Fuck,” he muttered.

“Chill dude, you have all the time in world,” Dave said sitting back down. Karkat managed to button up his jeans and _slowly_ raise himself back onto the bed.

“But you said-“

“Yes, and I also said shit storm,” Dave said standing up. “And coincidentally, that shit storm gave me the ability to manipulate time.” He walked to the door and opened it. From where Karkat was sitting, he could see ‘Bro’ mid-glance down the white hall. Slowly, Karkat made his way over to Dave and studied what the man had been looking at. A nurse was dropping a clipboard. Her face remained frozen in the shock you get when you drop things, annoyed at yourself, mainly.  The few pages were still, caught in the act of falling.

Leaving Karkat to lean in the doorway, Dave walked down the hall and placed the object back in the nurse’s hands. He walked back saying, “I wonder how you’re fucked up too.”

Dave helped Karkat with his shoes and shirt because he still seemed a bit shocked.

“…shit storm?” Karkat muttered. “I don’t know how you define shit storm Dave-“

“Strider.”

“-Dave Strider. But this, this is an all-out fucking mark five shit hurricane of fucking nonsense.”

Dave sat down next to him and grabbed his hand again. “I know man, but hey,” he closed his eyes, “it is pretty fucking cool.”

 


	2. “Even The Crazy Ones”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Backstories! Ancestors!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my goodness people are actually reading this wow. Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoy it!

After the lurch back into the present, Dave lead Karkat over to ‘Bro’ and a nurse brought them out a back door, receiving a fifty for his services. Karkat had learned not to question shady things.

The car ride home was silent. The only thing Dave had really said since the hospital room was “This is my brother, Bro.” That eased the tension after having just snuck someone out of a hospital.

Bro had pulled up an apartment building and let them out while he presumably went to park the car.

“Do you kid nap people often?” Karkat asked, still relying on Dave for support as they walked into the building lobby together.

“I would like to think of that little escapade as an act of relieving you of their care,” Dave answered as he pushed the elevator button. “Besides,” he said, making sure Karkat was holding onto a railing, “I was the one who checked you in there.”

The elevator moved towards the 14th floor.

“Why the hell did you do that?” Karkat asked. Dave grabbed his elbow to make sure he didn’t face plant again.

“You weren’t waking up, man.”

Karkat looked at the floor as the door opened.

Dave continued, “I yelled at you, I shook you, hell I even slapped you, but you wouldn’t wake up.”

When they had reached a door at the end of the hall, Dave pulled a key out of his pocked and let them in.  “Every day I would leave you a twenty and then last night on my way home… you didn’t look like you were sleeping. I called 911.”

Dave sat Karkat down on the couch and gave him some water. The kitchen was right next to the living room, so Karkat could see Dave as he began to make a sandwich. “The doctor said you were malnourished and extremely stressed, your body couldn’t take it. When was the last time you ate?”

Karkat had to think hard, his mind was getting slow. “It must have been… three days.”

Dave looked up in astonishment. “Dude! Why didn’t you go to a shelter? Or a church? Or ask me? Anything?”  He walked the food over to Karkat, who thanked him and began to eat.

In between boughs of chewing he muttered, “I was afraid someone would find me.” Dave waited as Karkat scarfed down the food. “My family is… violent…. Basically the aforementioned shit storm.”

Karkat was having trouble keeping his eyes open; Dave could tell he needed rest. “Come on,” he said, helping Karkat up. He ended up carrying the smaller figure into his room and lying him down on his bed.  Karkat groggily shifted under the blankets. His eyes fluttered as he got comfy, and eventually he stopped moving altogether.

Dave took a moment to watch him, he looked exhausted. Still, if he was going through what the rest of them had been through, he wouldn’t be exhausted for long.

He sighed, shit storm indeed. His phone buzzed in his pocket. _John Calling._ “Hello?”

“Dave, Rose told me to call you. She said something was happening. Is everything okay?”

“Depends on your definition of okay.”

“Well… definitely not something bad.”

“Then yeah, I’m okay,” Dave said eyeing Karkat. “But we got another one.”

“Should I…”

“Yeah. Bring all of them, even the crazy ones.”

“On it.”

The line ended.

“Sweet dreams man, you’re gonna need em.”

Karkat stirred for a moment, and then fell back asleep.

 

“Vriska, we shouldn’t wake him up yet.”

“Terezi, I will wake Karkat up whenever the fuck I like. Karkat!”

“Ah!” Karkat awoke with a start. He was lying in a tangle of red sheets, starring dumbfounded at the two girls looming above him, the only two people he had trusted, his only friends.

Short, snarky, utterly insane Terezi Pyrope stood next to the tall, confident, bossy, equally insane Vriska Serket. They were really here. He didn’t even notice the other people. They were alive. They were safe.

Naturally he lost his shit. “And where the fuck have you been!” he jumped out bed with surprising agility coupled with terrifying fury.

“I’d like to know the same!” Vriska shouted back.

“I’ll have you know-“and before the yelling could really begin a boy jumped in between them.

“Stop! Stop!”

They all did. Karkat gave Vriska a good _we’ll finish this later_ glare before sizing up the peace maker in front of him. He had square glasses magnifying wide blue eyes and an unruly mop of back hair. The boy was holding his arms up, glancing from Karkat, to Vriska, back to Karkat, and settling on Dave in the corner of the room. Dave shrugged and sighed. “Karkat, I take it you know crazy one and crazy two,” he motioned to the girls. Karkat took a step back and nodded.

“Yeah, we got separated back in July.”

“We’re really sorry, Karkat,” Terezi said. She was wearing opaque red glasses, and a held onto a cane. That was… new. Vriska wasn’t the same either. A blue glove was covering her left hand; the whole arm looked stiff.

Dave broke the silence. “Let’s resume story time in the living room, shall we?”

Mop top had stepped away from Karkat and Vriska only after everyone had nodded to Dave’s suggestion.

Two girls were having tea on the couch.

“Karkat, you’re the only new one here,” Dave tossed him a sympathetic look, “Sorry.” He motioned to the dark skinned brunette with large, circular glasses, “That’s Jade.” Jade waved and smiled hello. “And that,” he said pointing to the girl with the heavy black eyeliner and lipstick, “is Rose.” She carefully looked Karkat over before taking a sip of her tea and nodding a hello. “Mr. Heroic over there is John.” John smiled.

“Hi Karkat!”

Karkat wasn’t in the mood for pleasantries. He took a deep breath. “AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO DOESN’T KNOW WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?”

“Yes.”

Karkat glared at Terezi.

“I bet you’re glaring at me, too bad I’m blind.” She sat down before removing the glasses. 

Karkat couldn’t speak. Two frosted looking eyes smiled back at him. Vriska sat down next to the blind girl with a grunt and rolled up her sleeve to reveal a prosthetic arm.

“None of these guys,” Vriska began, “know the full story either. John found Terezi and me after the… eh… accident and has taken care of us. He doesn’t ask a lot of questions and…” She looked at John apologetically, “I might have mind controlled him once or twice.”

“Wait…” John trailed off, taking a seat on the couch opposite of the girls. Karkat still stood.

“Karkat,” Terezi said, “Let’s start from the beginning beginning, and just fill in the blanks from there, tell them about us. Tell them about your dad.”

 

After they all sat down there was an awkward few minutes of silence, finally broken by Terezi.

“Hey cool kid, is your brother ever home?”

Dave shrugged and sipped his apple juice. “Nah, he has a studio a few blocks away and spends most of his time there, but he trusts me so I just kind of do my thing.”

“Studio?” she asked.

“Let’s not get into it. I for one am in dire need of some back stories.” He sipped his apple juice while raising his eye brows expectantly at Karkat.

Everyone now stared at the newcomer. Karkat looked at them all each in turn, and then began.

“Vriska, Terezi, and I grew up in the Alternian mob.” He let that fact settle in. John and Jade exchanged a nervous look. A crime family that called themselves Alternians had plagued the city as long as people could remember. ‘Alternia’ wasn’t a real last name, but it was the pseudonym of every bank robber, embezzler, and hit man in the city. They are never found, never snitched on, and always get the job done. No one messes with an Alternian, especially not the police.

“My Dad had never been around when I was little,” Karkat continued. “I’d always been told he was off doing a ‘foreign job’. When I was ten they told me he died, shot by a cop. Of course I believed them; I’d never know anything else.

“Life went on. A woman we called Dolorosa raised me with her daughter Kanaya. There were about a dozen of us kids in the ‘family’ altogether. We attended private school and shit like that. For the next few years we kept up our privileged life.

“Then… Terezi’s mom came back a little while ago. She had also been on ‘foreign jobs’ over the past few years. See, we all get these weird names. Dolorosa means grieving. It was pretty accurate, she always looked… pained. Terezi’s mom was deemed Redglare. I think back when she was a hitman, it was her signature move or something, and the last thing her targets saw was their own blood; or a ‘red glare.’ Anyways, she started doing ‘foreign jobs’ a few years after Terezi was born.

“When she came back she pulled Dolorosa aside, Terezi and I snuck in a closet to listen. Redglare had been studying law at the University of London. My dad… people now call him the Sufferer… he had been covering for her. You know, helping her targets go underground and what not. Then, about six years ago, Condesce had found out.

“She’s basically The Godfather. Nothing gets by without her knowing.  So when she eventually _did_ find out…” at this point Karkat stopped. He just looked at his hands for a moment. “Well, she sent some guy I’ve never heard of, Darkleer. And I guess he killed my dad in a pretty bad way because Dolorosa was crying by then. She had pretty much raised my dad.

“The rest were just extra things. My dad had some kind of… companion. Don’t ask me why Condesce had people start calling her the Disciple but she did. Darkleer couldn’t kill her, and now neither of their whereabouts are known.

“That whole conversation we overheard was last June. The rest of the story we got in bits and pieces. Basically, Redglare was trying to find a way to prove my father’s murder. Vriska’s mom found out somehow and… well Mindfang is pretty devoted to the family, she told the Highblood, who kind of handles… internal affairs. He hung her.”

Terezi sat motionless. Vriska was scratching something off the plastic she now wore.

“We had to leave. We begged Kanaya to come with us, but she said Condesce was too important at the moment, and she couldn’t leave yet. Not even after everything we told her she just… stayed. 

“The three of us went completely under the radar. We had to go homeless; we were bound to be found otherwise.

“Dolorosa would go buy fabric for Kanaya every Wednesday. It’s the shop next to the bridge, the one I stayed under. She hasn’t been there in weeks, and we can only presume the worst.

“So yeah, the three of us were on the run for about two weeks, when one day I wake up alone. No note. Not a goodbye. Nothing. I stayed under the bridge waiting and you two never came back,” Karkat finished. He was glaring the best he could, but was more of a question. All over his face, his eyes were screaming _why? Why did you do that to me?_

It was Vriska’s turn for a deep breath, “Well, I guess it’s my side now.” She pushed up her glasses with her good hand and messed with her hair for a moment. The she looked at Karkat, deadpan. “I’m the one who told Mindfang about Redglare.”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As I said before, I do have all of this written. I'll just post a couple chapters a day. I'm taking my time editing. The whole thing will probably be posted by next week.  
> Thanks!


	3. “Did You Lose A Sword A Few Months Ago?”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Powers, references, etc.

Dave went to grab another apple juice while Vriska’s words set in. From the kitchen he could see John and Jade exchanging looks, mouthing _‘what?’_ over and over. Rose was her usual self, although the tea in front of her was cold, only half finished, and Rose never let her tea go cold. Terezi was surprisingly still. Of course Karkat gaped. How could he not? Once again the anger was almost making him physically shake.

 _Wait, he’s actually shaking,_ Dave thought. As he sat back down next to him on the couch, Dave could clearly see Karkat’s wrists were twitching. The skin on Karkat’s forearm, ever so slightly, was jumping up and down. For a moment Dave was tempted to reach and touch the other boy’s arm, but he decided not to.

The silence was heavy again, until John couldn’t take it.

“But why did you tell her!” John blurted out.

“Because I thought it was the right thing to do,” Vriska answered. She talked slower than Karkat, and let the words drift into people ears before continuing. “My mother was a small time criminal on her own before becoming an Alternian. She became Redglare’s target after screwing up an Alternian embezzlement project. Redglare was supposed to kill her, but it turned out that my mother- she called herself Marquise before- had connections with a man named Dualscar, who is in pretty high favor of Condesce. Dualscar called Redglare off at the last moment. A while later Marquise was an honorary Alternian. This was before I was born.

“I’m only telling you this because this is what _I_ grew up hearing. I was raised on my mother’s tales. She was my superhero.

“Of course when all of this was going on I had to tell her. She was so proud of me. I think especially since I had given her something against Redglare. She despised her.

“But I never thought the Highblood would kill her. Then we found out and we left. It’s not like I was going to bring it up, not after everything we found out. The first two weeks were hell for me. I was just waiting for one of you to figure it out.

“One night, Terezi did. I think she had known for a while. You had fallen asleep, Karkat. Terezi asked me to walk with her. We went into an ally.”

“Dave did you lose a sword a few months ago?” Terezi interrupted.

“Yeah actually, I dropped it off the roof while fighting with Bro but I never found it,” Dave replied.

Terezi continued the story. “Sorry Vriska you talk slow. I wasn’t ready to approach Vriska until I had a weapon and one day this sword was just lying on the ground so I thought ‘well isn’t that covenant.’ I hid it behind a trashcan and didn’t pull it out until I had asked her. And I mean really, who else would have told Mindfang? Vriska admitted to snitching, I grabbed the sword and we fought for a few minutes.

“The whole thing didn’t last long. I stabbed Vriska’s shoulder. When she fell she grabbed a bottle of spray paint lying on the ground and got my eyes when I went to strike again. We were screaming and crying and probably looked like morons when this idiot found us,” she pointed her cane at John.

“I needed my copy of Con Air back, I was walking to your house,” John explained to Dave.

“He called 911 and Vriska and I woke up in the hospital.”

“But the thing is their injuries weren’t that bad,” John said, “Like ours weren’t.”

“What do you mean-“Karkat started but Dave shushed him.

“Yeah. There was no reason for me to be blind,” Terezi confirmed.

“And I should _not_ have lost my arm,” Vriska added.

“But it was pretty okay considering we have superpowers,” Terezi said with a shrug.

“Terezi you can’t just tell it like that!” Vriska shouted.

“But that’s how it happened!” she retorted. “I can smell the color of John’s shirt, and feel Dave drinking his apple juice. Everything is clearer to me than it had been when I had sight! And you can control people’s minds.”

Vriska sighed at Terezi’s method of storytelling before finishing, “I had figured it out relatively quickly, and used it to get John to sneak us out of the hospital.”

“Which I would have done anyways! She didn’t even give me a chance to show her the windy thing!” John interrupted.

“Turns out they all have powers too,” Terezi said. “John knew what we were going through, so he got his Dad to let us stay with them. We didn’t go back because if we thought we would be caught any day. There were a few close calls but Vriska sent them away using her powers. We thought you would be safer under the bridge.”

“So you couldn’t bother to leave a note? Was it too much to let me know you were okay!” Karkat was trembling again.

The two girls looked at each other. They had no excuse.

“How could you do that, Vriska? How could you be okay with that, Terezi?  And what were you going to do with that sword? Would you have killed her? Is that what we’ve come to? What the fuck is wrong with you?” he stood up.

Terezi and Vriska looked at each other. “We know it was wrong, we forgave each other and put it behind us,” Terezi said. She couldn’t bring herself to apologize. It would be useless after what they had put him through.

“Well I forgive you two clusterfucks too!” Karkat shouted.

Dave stood up and put gently laid a hand on Karkat’s clenched fist. Karkat looked down in confusion. _Are you-_ Then saw what Dave had and jerked his hand away.

“…the fuck?” A red vertical cut had appeared on his wrist. He checked the other one, it was also slit open.  Karkat held his arms out in front of him and they all stared as the small cuts slowly closed themselves back up. “I don’t understand,” he muttered, touching his wrists. They had no trace that nearly two inch cuts had been there moments before.

“You said the heart monitor wasn’t working?” a voice piped up. It was the first time Rose had spoken.

“Yep,” Dave said. “There was obviously blood there, but according to the monitor it wasn’t going anywhere.”

“Ooh! Blood powers!” Jade exclaimed. Karkat was too baffled to shoot the cheerful girl a glare.

“What can you guys do?” Karkat asked.

“John, show him the windy thing,” Vriska said.

“What windy thing?” he asked innocently.

Vriska let out an annoyed sigh, “ _The_ windy thing.”

“What windy thing?” he replied again.

“John!” she yelled.

He then proceeded to do the windy thing.


	4. "Stop Talking"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Karkat get's his powers...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoa plot stuff! Thank you to everyone who's read this! I'm glad you enjoy it!

“Goddamnit, John.” Dave was picking up papers and other loose objects off the floor. “You didn’t need to show off.”

John was attempting (and failing) to look like he was sorry for summoning hurricane force gusts into the apartment a moment earlier. Well, hurricane is an exaggeration. Still, the apartment was a mess. Rose was helping Jade and Vriska with their hair. The wind had completely ruined any form of neatness they had previously possessed.

“I think-“Jade paused, removing a few strands of hair from her mouth, “-that a little warning would do next time, John.”

“I’ll try to remember that. But hey! Check this out!” John held up one hand and focused on it. He looked like he was going to hurt himself he was concentrating so hard. Then, his hand began to disappear. After his arm was nothing but a nub at his shoulder, he yelled in aggravation and the limb reappeared with a _swoosh._

“Dang! Well, I’m still working on it,” he said, a bit disappointed.

“We believe our powers can evolve the more we use them,” Rose stated.  Karkat was about to ask something when she said “John received his first, so naturally he is the furthest along out of all of us.” That made sense to Karkat but he wondered- “John had broken his arm falling out of a tree last June. It was just a fracture, but the doctors said he needed to stay overnight because he might go into shock; it didn’t make sense. The next day he broke Dave’s window by accidentally blowing a gust of wind through it.”

_Well that must have been-_ “Oh yes, it was very surprising,” Rose finished his thought. He looked at her, wondering _did she just-_ “Read your mind? Why yes. I’m quite fond of my physic abilities.” The blond smirked at Karkat’s gape while she went to put her mug in the sink.

“Don’t worry, she only uses it to show off,” Jade said.

“And you can…?” Karkat was almost afraid to ask.

The cheery girl smiled in a way he didn’t like and walked over to where he and Dave were sitting on the opposite couch. She placed a hand on the piece of furniture and closed her eyes. The couch began to glow green… and shrink.  Soon enough Dave was smooshed side by side against Karkat.

“Dave’s threatening to kill you, Harley,” Rose called from the kitchen.

Jade only winked in response, and snapped her fingers. The couch returned to its normal size, allowing Karkat and Dave to promptly scoot to opposite sides.

“And you’ve already seen my time powers so that’s that,” Dave sputtered. _Harley why did you have to do that? Why? Why?_

“She thought it would be funny, idiot, and you should have seen your face,” Rose answered, not even looking up from the sink.

Karkat gave him a questioning look. Dave only shrugged.

“Oh, a science experiment gone wrong is what landed Jade and I in the hospital, a blow from a katana for Dave,” Rose added, “In case you were wondering, which I know you were.”

“A katana?” he asked.

Dave waved his hand in dismissal.

“Well now that introductions are over, I want to know what Karkat here has up his sleeve,” Vriska said. “Or more specifically, up his wrist.”

“Guys, he’s kind of been through a lot today-“Dave started, but Karkat cut him off.

“Me too.”

“Great, let’s go to the roof,” Vriska suggested.

Rose looked worried. “I’d much rather we did this in my lab, we don’t know-“

“It’ll be fine,” Vriska was already walking towards the fire escape. Karkat followed.

“No sense in arguing,” Terezi resolved before following too.

The four remaining figured exchanged glances and sighs before joining the others on top of the building.

 

“You need to get angry!” Vriska yelled.

“I’m trying!” Karkat yelled back.

They had been on the roof for over half an hour watching Vriska pour out insult over insult onto Karkat. No response. He wasn’t getting angry enough to provoke whatever power was buried inside of him. Vriska had even tried to mind-control it out of him, but to no avail. She didn’t know what she was supposed to be controlling. Nothing worked.

Dave watched Jade and John play their favorite game. Whatever objects they had lying around were arranged in a row. John would try to blow one over and Jade had to try to shrink it before he could. It was very amusing to watch.

“I didn’t want to have to do this Karkat…” Dave looked up at Vriska; her voice was deadly. She continued, “But I guess it’s necessary.”

Karkat sighed, what more could she say to him?

_“Remember Gamzee?”_

Rose jumped. Whatever reaction Karkat had in his head was big enough to startle her. Terezi turned her head upon the word. John and Jade were oblivious.

Karkat focused on the ground, fists clenched.

Vriska smiled. “Oh. Still angry about your little bestie? Still _mad?_ ” She dragged out the words. Karkat’s breathing was getting quicker. “Remember how he _left you?_ Remember what he did to _Equius?_ ” His wrists were begging to shake. Even John and Jade realized what was going on now. “ _Nepeta?”_

What happened after the last syllable was uttered took place in under three seconds. Karkat swung his right arm back, as to pitch a ball. A long rope of red burst from his wrists. It shot out towards Vriska, wrapping around her neck. His left wrist produced an identical stream of liquid that secured itself around her good arm. “STOP TALKING!”

No one moved. The only sound was Karkat’s breathing and Vriska’s choking. The jets consisting of Karkat’s blood were in a constantly fluid state; flowing and reflowing into the bonds that had Vriska struggling to breath.

“Let her go.” Karkat hadn’t realized Dave stepped had stepped behind him. Dave wasn’t threating Karkat. He merely whispered the suggestion in his ear and waited. Karkat’s breathing became calmer. But he didn’t loosen his grip; not until Dave had put his hand on Karkat’s shoulder.

The streams loosed and slowly retreated back into Karkat’s body. Dave stayed next to him as Rose tended to Vriska. She looked proud for a girl who was almost just choked to death.

“That was… unexpected,” Vriska noted. She had already recovered. “We heal pretty fast,” she explained while walking back over to Karkat, but he didn’t care.

“Never do that again, Vriska,” he said.

“Well I got it out of ya didn’t I?” she asked, but Dave shot her a glare.

“I think we’ll be leaving now,” Rose said. Dave silently thanked her, knowing she would hear. She nodded _of course_ and showed everyone back to the fire escape. Wind was radiating off John when he walked by. _This really must have freaked him out,_ Dave thought.

After everyone had left the roof, Dave turned to Karkat. The cuts had healed after the blood had returned, yet Karkat couldn’t stop staring at them. Dave gently grabbed one of Karkat’s arms, forcing him to look up. He led him to the edge of the roof where they sat. The sun was setting.

Dave just let Karkat think. The kid had only gotten out of the hospital last night. It had been an unimaginable twenty four hours.

After the sun had dipped in between the other buildings Karkat turned to Dave. It was silent.

“Thanks.”

“No problem dude.”

“So…” Karkat said after a while.

“So…” Dave replied with equaled null enthusiasm.

“So how did you manage to almost die by a katana?” Karkat asked.

Dave smiled before begging an epic tale of two brothers, who fought on rooftops such as the very ones they were seated on, and how their battles were legendary for keeping the neighbors up. One day, the younger brother was taken off guard by the elder, and a great tragedy ensued: his favorite shirt was ruined because of the stab wound.

Karkat was laughing so hard he had to catch his breath when Dave was done. “You’re ridiculous, you know that Strider?”

“I’ve been told, Kit Kat.”

“Don’t call me that,” Karkat warned.

“You know that only makes me want to call you Kit Kat like a million times more right?” Dave retorted.

Karkat groaned. It was silent again. By now the stars were out.

_“Kiiit Kaaatt,”_ Dave whispered.

“Oh my fucking god,” Karkat said.

“Are you just going to flirt with the poor boy or invite him to stay?” a voice called from the other edge of the roof.

Both boys turned to see Bro standing on the roof expectantly. He sighed after the silence, then called, “Anyways, dinner’s ready,” and walked back to the ladder.

“Did he mean stay for dinner?” Karkat asked.

Dave looked confused. “No man, like live here. Did you forget? You’re homeless. And John didn’t have any more room and-“

“Thank you, Dave,” Karkat interrupted.

“No problem man,” Dave said. Then he added, “You know we have to register you for school soon, right?”

“I figured as much.”

“Public school.”

“WHAT?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, obviously everyone's powers have to do with their aspects in HS. The plot also kind of circulates about HS, certainly with the ancestors. Some things are taken way out of context, but hey, it's a fic.


	5. Levitation Act

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Whoa, powers and stuff. And a fast forward-ish-thing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to everyone who has read this! Feel free to comment, I'd love feedback.

In Karkat’s old school he did what he wanted. He ate what he wanted. And he learned whatever he wanted to, whenever he wanted to.

Now he sat in 6th period English eyeing the clock to make it move faster. He had completed his lit paper draft about ten minutes ago and was now simply waiting to be released from this torturous hell. Mr. Noir droned on and on about writing techniques Karkat had learned last year. School had started over a month ago, and it was just as awful as he expected it would be.

He remembered the first day.

 

“Who the fuck names a school Can Town High?” he had asked Dave.

“We live in Can Town dude, it’s actually pretty normal,” Dave had answered as they walked up the steps into the school. It was as normal as any other high school in the US, but to Karkat they might as well have been on a different planet. Finally Dave had had enough of Karkat’s scowling. He dragged him into a bathroom (Karkat promptly shuttered at the sight of it) and told him, “Kit Kat, you have been bitching ever since you moved in a week ago.” Karkat sighed but didn’t argue. “And I know you’re scared, and not just because Rose told me.”

Again, no objections from Karkat. During the week they had spent together Karkat had learned Dave actually wasn’t as mysterious and cool as when they first met. He was actually a huge dork, and at times it was very adorable. _Wait, adorable?_ He did a double check to see that Rose wasn’t… in the guy’s bathroom.

“…get it? Everything will be fine,” Dave finished some thought Karkat had not been listening to. _Idiot._

“Yeah, thanks.” Karkat responded. Dave gave his shoulder a squeeze and led him to his homeroom before going to his own. At least John was in Karkat’s homeroom so he wasn’t completely alone. _Better than Rose,_ Karkat thought, and shuddered at the thought of her hearing what his idiotic brain said sometimes.

 

Finally the last bell rang; allowing Karkat to leave the wretched classroom. None of his friends were even in that class anyway. He gathered whatever books he probably wouldn’t even look at over the weekend and worked his way to Dave’s locker. Karkat still hadn’t gotten over the fact that there were so many _people._ He had always referred to his education as a private school, because it had been school and it had been private. A better description would be hired tutors teaching about a dozen bright kids from rich families.

This was awful.

John was babbling about something when Karkat walked over.

“…I mean I just don’t see the appeal anymore. I’m kind of glad I ended up leaving my copy of Con Air at your house. Hey, Karkat!” John said. How could be so smiley after a full week of school?

“Hey guys,” Karkat said. “I’m going to the lab, you want to head over?”

“Yes! You guys have to see what I figured out last night!” John exclaimed, almost bouncing.

 _Wait; are his feet even on the ground?_ Karkat thought. Dave had noticed it too. They exchanged a look, and then turned back to John, who was a good two inches off the ground by now. Simultaneously Karkat and Dave put one hand on each of John’s shoulders and pushed him back to Earth. He looked guilty.

“Sorry, I just got so excited,” John explained. His phone buzzed. Dave closed his locker while John dug the phone out of his pants to see the text. “I hate it when she does that.”

On the screen a text from Rose read: _Don’t worry, no one saw your little levitation act. I’ll meet you guys at the lab._

“Of course she already knows,” Karkat said as they walked to the door.

“When does she not?” John asked.

 

A bus ride and ten minutes later the three boys were standing in front of the Lalonde estate. Before they could even press the buzzer on the gate Rose buzzed them in. Her house was huge and near a secluded spot in the city. They didn’t bother going inside. Instead, they walked the well-worn dirt path that ran from the front lawn, past the rose garden, to a solemn little mausoleum at the back of the property. They stepped inside, paid their regards to the mausoleum only resident, Jaspers, and pushed a button on the corner of the cat’s casket. The back of wall of the small space slid open with a hiss.

“She can afford an entire _secret fucking lab_ under her back yard and not a damn _elevator?_ ” Dave muttered, starting into the stairwell that sprawled out before them. Karkat smiled after him. Every single time they came here some variation of that phrase left Dave’s mouth.

He did agree with him though, it was a long fucking stairway. A slight breeze tickled his back. “John,” Karkat said, “You’re doing it again.”

“Oh, sorry,” John apologized. The wind stopped.

 _What the hell does he want to show us?_ Karkat thought. John only radiated wind when he was upset or excited.

It didn’t take long to find out. The stairs ended and the boys entered the gigantic lab Rose just happened to have lying around. It was bigger than the cafeteria at school, and at least two stories high. Adding the fact that it was not very well lit, one word came to mind: cavernous. Rose was sitting at one of the many computers next to a very large, very strange machine. “Show me,” she said, turning.

“Wow, it’s like you _read my mind,_ ” John retorted, rolling his eyes. The sarcasm was only momentary, though. His cheesy grin spread across his face and he started to levitate. John had been trying to fly for weeks now, but he looked too happy for just flying.

Gradually, his feet began to disappear. Then his torso followed suit, and his arms, and his neck, and even the grin eventually faded into nothingness.  No one moved. A slight breeze stirred up papers on desks, and ruffled their hair.

“Boo,” a voice whispered behind Karkat and Dave. They both jumped and Karkat (though he swears Dave is lying) even screamed. John was on the floor, trying to catch his breath from laughing so hard.

Between laughs he kept breathing, “Yes!”

Rose walked over and poked him. He was solid all right. She smiled a scientist’s smile and began to write down her observations. “Interesting,” she muttered to herself, as she often did when they discovered something new about their powers.

After John had finally caught his breath and Rose had finished questioning him, they went over to her chemistry station to do more tests. Rose had a test for everything.

Meanwhile, Dave and Karkat went to their usual spot. There was a little secluded area in the south corner that was hidden by two of the strange, bubbling machines that lined the lab. This is where Karkat and Dave worked.

Dave set up a few targets while Karkat willed his wrists open. His power was hard to control. Some days he couldn’t even get it to work without thinking of something painful. Once, he even considered just cutting his wrists open manually instead. Rose had heard him though, and promptly informed Dave just what Karkat had been thinking. Dave was furious, and kept an extra eye on him ever since.

Today wasn’t as bad. Karkat tried to focus on what Rose had told him the first time he came to the lab: “You’re heart can produce immense amounts of blood at will. It only circulates when it needs to. Your whole hematological structure had changed. It’s merely a mental block preventing you from accessing your powers full potential.”

Karkat breathed and willed his writs to open. They did, painlessly. That was a good sign. Still, the streams from his body moved lazily, and only knocked over one can Dave had set up. Progress is progress, though.

Dave, on the other hand was improving in leaps and bounds. Karkat took a break to watch him flit around the dark space. He wasn’t really _flitting,_ Karkat knew. He was just slowing down time and moving through it at a normal pace. From an outside eye it looked like he was going supersonic. Yet, there were no shockwaves. For some reason this led Rose to believe Dave could manage to freeze time completely, and possibly will it to run backwards.

Sometimes, Dave and Karkat would just walk around a frozen mall, or a frozen movie theater. _Not frozen,_ Karkat corrected himself again. Dave only slowed time down to where it appeared frozen. Nothing beat a still moment in time, you lose track of it when it’s not relevant. Sometimes they would walk for hours; they never knew exactly how long. Dave had a special knack for knowing when Karkat was feeling sick of the world, so he would pull Karkat into the stillness of it all, and allow him to wonder until the was feeling better again. Sometimes they talked, other times they were as silent as the space around them. Dave never took anyone else on these time-adventures. It was… special.

“Boys, fire on Holly and 6th, apartment building,” Rose called into the lab. They all rushed to meet her at her computer. She had linked it to a police scanner.

“On it,” Dave said.

“Leave Karkat, take Jade,” Rose suggested. She smiled apologetically. Karkat scoffed but Rose knew he agreed with her; under developed blood powers were no match to spatial manipulation.

“And don’t forget, John,” Rose warned to the draft above her, “Oxygen can be _flammable._ Let Jade and Dave take care of the fire, you just help people out.”

John materialized long enough to nod before a gust of wind _swooshed_ up the stair way. Dave had disappeared too.

“Don’t be sad, Karkat. You’ll be joining in in their frankly overrated heroics soon enough,” Rose assured him before turning back to her computer. “Goodbye,” she added before he had the chance to tell her he was leaving.

_Get out of my head._

“I would, but it’s too amusing,” she called. He was already heading up the stairs.


	6. "Useless"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Davekat....

Karkat couldn’t sleep that night. Normally, being left out only annoying but tonight it was really bothering him. “You’ll be joining in their frankly overrated heroics soon enough”. But they weren’t overrated. All the news could talk about that evening was the fire. Everyone made it out.  “…witnesses reported seeing unexplainable green flashes of light and a red blur…” Of course John had been there too but “a breeze was reported” isn’t really headline material.

Karkat turned in his bed to observe Dave. Bro may be loaded, but they couldn’t just up and move on his regard. Besides, the only other option was for Karkat’s bed to go in the weapons’ room they just happened to have. For some reason sleeping in the same room as Dave was more comforting than sleeping in the same room as twenty some odd lethal swords.

The room was a little red for Karkat’s taste. Everything Dave owned was red, including the modified hoodie he wore whenever his powers were needed. He had even designed a logo on the front. “Gears, like, in a clock,” Dave had explained when he showed them. After that they all had little things. John wore a ridiculously long blue hood. Honestly, it’s not like anyone sees much of him. Jade followed Dave’s example, and simply wore a large black hoodie with an odd, flower like symbol on the front. She had said it reminded her of herself; whatever that meant. Rose didn’t care much for dress up. When they did require her she donned a cheery orange cardigan she had knitted herself. Karkat was convinced she just did it to ensure that they _wouldn’t_ include her.

And they rarely did. John, Dave, and Jade handled danger. Fires and natural things mostly, but the occasional armed robbery also fell into their list. That wasn’t a regular gig, though.

Vriska and Terezi were a different story. They were vigilantes, scouring the city at night doing… whatever it was they did. Their skill set complemented each other nicely. Terezi had gone full on ninja after the accident. And Vriska can seize someone’s will from up to ten miles now. _That’s not scary,_ Karkat thought.  What they did was very secretive, but Rose knew everything. She told them that the pair hired themselves as private investigators. Their identity never was too much of a deal for them. You didn’t look for the Scourge Sisters; the Scourge Sisters looked for you. It was their motto. Dangerous work, yes, but they were obviously handling it well. Rose used her own powers to assist them more than anything.

And Karkat just… did nothing. He trained and tried and did his best but… he was really quite useless. _It’s a good thing they don’t take me. I would only slow them down,_ Karkat thought as he shoved his covers off. The heat of summer wasn’t daunted by the incoming fall. Dave stretched in his sleep. Karkat sighed. If only… _what? If only I could not be a fucking doorstop. An idiot? Useless? Useless? Useless. Useless. Useless…_

“Kit Kat?” Dave already had his shades on. Karkat hadn’t realized he had begun to mutter the word out loud.

“I’m fine.” Karkat tried, but he knew the voice crack had betrayed him. He tried the best he could to make it look like water wasn’t about to spill from his eyes, but he didn’t need to. Dave didn’t turn the light on.

But he knew.

Karkat watched Dave’s shadowy form drift from its bed and over to Karkat’s. Karkat had sat up by now. The two stared at the black nothingness of each other’s faces. Sounds from the ever restless city filled the darkness around them. Without a word, Dave reached down and gently touched Karkat’s wrists. He could feel the open wounds that only came in desperate times.

Dave silently sat on the bed and turned cross-legged to Karkat’s side. Karkat turned to face him. Again, Dave took his friends hands, only this time his fingers wondered. They traced lifeless veins up and down his arms. Karkat’s skin was always cold, due to the still blood that slept under it. Very few things made Karkat’s heartbeat, and Dave’s touch was one of them.

Warmth began to spread into Karkat’s body. Each time Dave’s fingers traced another part of him, it was like a slow burning fire. Up and down and up and down his hands traced. Left arm, then the right, left, then right. And then, both Dave’s hands rested on the healed wrists. A pulse reflected that he had succeeded in making Karkat’s blood flow once again.

Usually, it ended there. A quite mummer of thanks would break the silence, and the boys went back to sleep.

Dave’s hand began to move again. They dropped onto Karkat’s crossed thighs, and moved up under his shirt. They inched their way over Karkat’s skin, now hot with life. He stopped when they rested on Karkat’s heart. It was beating so hard Dave could feel it in his fingertips.

It was Karkat who had leaned back, bringing Dave to rest on top of him. It was Karkat who wrapped shaking hands around Dave’s back. Dave slid his hands from under the shirt and for a moment fear told Karkat that Dave would leave.

But he didn’t. He allowed his body to relax against Karkat’s, and now his arms draped over Karkat’s shoulders, lazily running his fingers through Karkat’s dark hair. Dave felt Karkat move his own hands, settling in the back pockets of Dave’s sweatpants.

Dave laid his head on Karkat’s shoulder. He then kissed Karkat’s neck. He did it again in response to the small gasp he felt below him. His lips moved again, slowly dancing under Karkat’s jaw until he found the jugular vein. With ever kiss he could feel Karkat’s heartbeat.

Karkat sometimes forgot what it was like to feel his blood rushing so fast. His hands migrated up, drifting across Dave’s back, up to his shoulders. Sometimes Dave would lose the vein he was kissing, and relied on his tongue to guide him back. At times like this Karkat gripped Dave’s shoulders tighter, and tighter.

After who knows how long the blissful activity had lasted, Dave slowed, and allowed Karkat’s hand to push their faces together.

Dave didn’t know it, but time had stopped when their lips met.

It was one, beautiful, slow, desperate kiss.

Then, in an instant, Dave was gone.

No body was pressed against Karkat’s. No lips were painting his veins with life. There was only the darkness, and a piece of paper in Karkat’s hand.

He fumbled for the light. The bed was now a mess of sheets.

In the warm night air, Karkat read: _You are not useless._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah there's that. Sorry, I can't resist cliffhangers.


	7. “Dave got me”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shenanigans...

A bullet ripped past Dave’s head. It shot into the wall behind him just as Vriska pulled him down. “Don’t die, idiot!” she yelled.

“How did I get here?” Dave asked. They were in some place dark. It looked like the lobby of some building.

“No time to explain,” Rose said. She fumbled with a rag. Dave realized they were hiding behind a desk.

“Rose, you don’t understand. I was just-“ but Terezi jumped over the desk, landing silently in front of them.

“We have to move,” she commanded. She held a short sword at her side. Was that a modified version of her cane? “Her clip is empty, I think backup is on the way.”

“How are we going to move Vriska?” Dave hadn’t realized Rose was holding the rag to Vriska’s leg. In the low light that they did have, Dave saw it was covered in blood. There was some scuffling behind the desk. People were assembling.

Rose’s shadowed face suddenly looked horrified. “They have gernades! Why do they have gernades!” she whispered. Then she responded to something Vriska was thinking. “No, you have lost to much blood. You can’t control them.”

 _Blood. Karkat. Control. Vriska._ Dave was piecing everything togrther. “Vriska, did you-“

Again he was cut off. Jade materialzed in front of them in a flash of green. She made a rectangle out of her fingers and pointed it at them. Another flash of green and they were in a small, pitch black, metal room.

Of course it was Terezi who found the light switch. They were in a safty deposit box room. Rose was settling Vriska on the floor. Terezi was watched the door as Jade looked expectantly at Dave.

“It will take them a moment to find us, thank you Jade,” Rose said.

“Vriska.” Dave spoke in a low tone. “What did you do?”

Her leg was already healing from the gunshot wound. She looked proud but Rose shook her head.

_Damnit Rose, what the fuck is going on?_

“I’m sorry Dave. We didn’t know you were… busy. It was last second. And we needed you…” she trailed off. Rose could only read thoughts, and the stream of emotions pouring through Dave could barely be put into words. He glared at Vriska.

“We got a tip about a bank robbery,” Vriska explained. “Normal gig for us but this… this was staged. They found us and things got violent so after I got shot I summoned all I had to get you. We were out of time.”

“Why didn’t you get Jade?” Dave asked, he genstered to her angrily.

“She was out of my range. She lives on the edge of town,” Vriska’s voice was defensive. “Why are you so angry? This is important.”

Before Dave could even think to respond, Rose cleared her throat. “Umm… who did get Jade?”

Jade looked at Dave incredulously. He widened his eyes, _what?_

“Dave got me.”

_What?_

“He told me to come here. It wasn’t even a minute ago.” Everyone stared at Dave.

Everyone but Terezi, who was guarding the door.  “We need everyone for this. Rose, call John.  Jade, get Karkat.”

 _No, no, no, no no no no nononononononono._ This was all happening so fast. Jade nodded her head.

“STOP!”

And everything did. As soon as the words left Dave’s mouth the room froze. He was breathing hard.

“I… did it.”

Frozen. Time had stopped. He felt it; or rather, he felt nothing. Ever since he had discovered his powers all those weeks ago, after dropping a glass of apple juice and slowing down time so it didn’t spill, he could feel time.

It moved like water, always rushing by at a constant flow. That’s why slowing it down felt like falling; it was the resistance. But this? This was… still.

Dave looked at the girls in the room. He walked over to the statue still Terezi. Only now could he see the blood on the sword. “‘They…’ it must be the Alternians…” he thought aloud. Slipping the door open, he walked out into a small hallway. After a few wrong turns he found his way into the lobby. A girl about his age stood in front of three people. Her right arm had a nasty gash down the side. She was obviously leading. Her face was in mid command, most likely something that had to do with one of the two boys behind her. He was carrying a grenade.

All of them looked… theatric. Their leader wore an elegant blue and green skirt, not the type you’d expect to see holding a 9mm. The boy who wasn’t holding an explosive device wore a long purple and black scarf. He looked calculated, thinking, his dark eyes framed by black glasses.  Mr. Grenade was simple, only following the patter of eccentricity by sporting glasses that were half blue, and half red.

The girl in the back was different. Dave walked up to her to get a closer look. She could have been normal, comparatively. She had a long red denim skirt. It was cheery. She should have been cheery too. Her delicate face, framed by short black hair, was troubled though. “Kanaya?” Dave guessed. He only remembered her name from Karkat’s reverie a month back. He passed on, wondering if it were her.

 

Dave may have been able to manipulate time, but he still had to walk. He didn’t mind though. Walking cleared his head.

As he made his way back to his apartment, he tried to remember Vriska seizing his will. Everything had been so… peaceful. Karkat…

That boy had been driving Dave crazy. Of course he had flirted with him a bit when he first moved in but then things got… quiet. Little moments were much more important than they should have been. Karkat doing his homework was just… nice. Karkat practicing in the lab was… good. Slowly, Dave’s little pauses around Karkat had become bigger. Good… nice… pleasant… beautiful. All of things just became Karkat. And then, not even 15 minutes ago, Dave let that wonderfulness engulf him. And it was everything he could have wanted.

He didn’t recall Vriska at all.

She must have willed him to slow down time and walk to the bank. His legs were already sore. To her, it would have been a simple command, but Dave walked seven blocks in the seconds that he didn’t remember.

_Damnit Vriska._

After the seven blocks back, and the walk up the stairs, Dave stood outside his room. He knew that Karkat would be in there. The frozen clock in the kitchen read 12:36am. When Dave had heard Karkat muttering, it had just turned midnight. For a guy who could bend time at will, he was pretty bad at estimating.

_I’ve probably been gone two minutes._

He took a deep breath and glared at the clock. A stirring began around him. Time. You can never put time in a sense of direction. You can’t tell if it’s flowing from any one way. But if you happen to be Dave Strider, you know it’s moving _forward._ No, he felt in his soul, it was slipping _backwards._ The clock in front of him changed to 12:35, and then to 12:34. He let time freeze over.

After a moment of hesitation, he opened the door.

Karkat was alone. But his face was calm and… happy. He was lying on his bed, right were Dave had also been lying. In a few moments he would see…

Dave didn’t allow himself to stay. He grabbed a pen and some paper off his desk. On it, he wrote the one thing Karkat should- no, _had-_ to know. After grabbing better clothes and his phone, Dave dropped the note in Karkat’s hand before closing the door and leaving.

“Damn time travel…” he muttered as he grabbed a wrist watch out of a drawer in the kitchen. The phone was stuck in a temporal lock screen. The watch, on the other hand (literally) was frozen at the correct time.

On the roof, in real clothes, ready for business, Dave looked at the watch. He moved time too around 11, when he had long left the roof earlier that day, and while Bro had been working late. Time began to flow again.

Jade picked up the phone when he called.

“… Dave…” she was confused with sleep “… is everything okay?”

“Get dressed and met me on the roof now, it’s important.”

“Uhh… yeah” she yawned. “Okay.”

A few minutes later Jade appeared in her familiar flash of green light.

“What’s wrong?” she had never seen Dave’s face so grim.

“In about an hour and a half, you will go to Can Town City Bank and materialize Rose, Vriska, and me into a safety deposit room. I won’t know what’s going on. Just go with it. Right now, I need your help. Time and space… and all that.”

Jade gaped. “So… you know this because… you came back? You figured it out? You can time travel!” She ran up to him in her vibrant fashion and studied him. “Wait, did something go wrong? Are we changing the future?”

He gave her a look. “Calm down, I have this under control. No, nothing went wrong. Well… it’s bad. So I guess- no we’re not changing the future.”

“Oh, okay.” She looked at him expectantly. “What now?”

“Now, we go stop a bank robbery.”

Jade grabbed Dave’s hand. Then, time and space were on their way.


	8. “Red skirt”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stabby violent stuff... ish. Among other things.

What happened next was something Jade would refer to as ‘pretty cool’. Dave had Jade teleport them to lobby of the bank. Of course it was closed, but it wasn’t empty. Because he had stopped time before they had left, the figures before them were still.

 Vriska and Rose were discussed something in front of the desk they would later be hiding at. Terezi was nowhere to be found.

“Shouldn’t we try and find whoever set this up?” Jade asked. She was walking around Rose, stopping to pick pieces of lint off her the bright orange cardigan.

“I actually left in a hurry. I really don’t know the situation or how the whole time travel gist even works. So, best not go fucking it up is my motto,” Dave said. Jade shrugged in agreement.

“And the plan is…?

“Here’s how it’s going to go: you and I are going to go to the room. I’ll fast forward to 12:35. At that point you go here and teleport us all into the room. I’ll have gone forward a few minutes by then, so no paradox shit goes down. Got it?” Dave asked.

“Got it,” Jade replied.

 

“We need everyone for this. Rose, call John.  Jade, get Karkat.”

Jade nodded at Terezi’s instructions and left. Rose already had her phone out.

“…wake up John… yes… it’s an emergency… no... at the bank. Do _not_ let them see you… Good.” Rose looked up. “John will be here soon- Dave, did you change?”

Dave was standing right where he was before he had left; only now he wasn’t in his pajamas.

“You tell me what the hell is going on first,” he said. They did have some time before John or Karkat was ready. Dave could have just stopped time but already he was feeling tired. His newfound abilities were exhausting him.

Vriska was able to stand now. “Terezi and I get tips anonymously all the time about upcoming jobs. This was like any other, a written note left in out PO Box. Nothing unusual, nothing strange.”

Terezi cut in, “Bank robberies are rare. I mean, you guys only take ‘em when people’s lives are on the line. But this wasn’t armed robbery. It was calculated, planned. The note only told us where and when it would take place.”

“We didn’t think much of it, this is a small bank,” Vriska explained. “It’s not worth ol’ Condy’s time. We figured we would be okay.”

“They took me, to be safe,” Rose added. “I’m usually quite useful in these types of instances.”

“Yeah,” Vriska continued. “And we got in; hid for the stake out, about half an hour later Feferi walks in ready to shoot up the place!”

“Feferi is here?” Karkat had just arrived with Jade. He was flustered, obviously had dressed in a hurry. He looked straight past Dave. “Why is Feferi here?”

“Who’s Feferi?” John had materialized inside the room. “Red skirt or blue skirt?”

“ _Red skirt?”_ Karkat repeated.

“Yeah, I passed the four of them on the way in. Oh, and, what the hell is going on?”  John had taken to the habit of floating when… well really whenever. He was four feet in the air looking confused.

Terezi recapped, and finished, “Feferi is the Condesce’s daughter. She was nice when she was younger but now… she just tries to be like her. But the thing is she really _is_ sweet. Great actress, but can’t hurt a fly. It’s Eridan we need to watch out for. He’s dangerous.”

John was about to ask something, but the door being blown off its hinges was a bit distracting.

Jade blocked the debris with a field of green light.

“Dave! Now!” Terezi called in the dust.

He tried, but time kept flowing. John blew the dust out into the hall, clearing the room.

_No, no, no, not now._

“Dave!” he turned to Rose. “Stop trying to stop it, just slow it down. Now!” She was standing with Vriska by the back wall. Vriska knew Rose was an asset that needed protection.

Dave did as told, and became a red blur to the others in the room. A few moments later he was back. “They’re in the break room. I tied them up with what I could find.”

“Gather ‘round!” Jade called. They all ran to the back of the room where Jade could fit them in her finger frame and were all teleported into a cramped break room. Three figures were tied to chairs.

“Where did Kanaya go?” Terezi demanded, holding her sword close to the boy with the colored glasses. His throat was touching the blade.

He spoke with confidence and a lisp. “Come on Terezi, you know she always has knives on her. Kan is an escape artist.”

“Sollux!” Feferi spat.

Vriska gave Rose a look. She nodded in response and gently pulled Karkat out of the room. Dave was about to follow but Vriska held him back. She motioned for John to follow the other group, with a confused look he did, whooshing around his new companions.

“Jade, you should guard the building,” Vriska suggested. Jade flashed away obediently.

The little room was still. The Sollux kid had an annoyed expression. Terezi stole behind the chair and snatched an object from him. “Detonating the explosives with your phone? Where did you learn that…?” she asked more to herself.

“Things have changes a bit, Terezi. Once you guys left…” Feferi trailed off. For a moment, Dave thought she would break this act they had mentioned earlier. Instead, her face set with more fire and she fell into her role as villain. “Not all of us can have _super powers._ What the hell is up with that anyways?” The role didn’t suit her.

Vriska was sitting on the counter that held breakroom appliances. She absentmindedly pushed the eight on the microwave a few times before shaking her head at Dave. _Don’t answer anything._

He nodded back.

This may have been his first job with the legendary Scourge Sisters, but he wasn’t completely incompetent.

 

Meanwhile, Karkat, Rose, and John headed steadily in one direction. Rose led their little band to a small closet near the back of the small bank. It was just like the rest of the doors they had passed.

 _She’s in there,_ Rose said…. Said? Karkat hadn’t seen her mouth move. _John, be ready to seize her if Karkat can’t handle this. I’m not a fighter._

_Directly into my fucking think pan. Great._

_I heard that Karkat._

He glared at her _of course you did._

John nodded agreement before flowing into the air again. Rose motioned for Karkat to stand with her by the door of the closet. She counted down to when she would open it.

 _3, 2, now!_ Karkat and Rose swung with the door, evading the throwing knife that flew out of the dark closet.

Karkat didn’t have to check. He knew he was ready.

Jumping into the doorframe he deflected another projectile coming from the dark closet. He shot a stream into the blackness, and seized one of his adversary’s wrists. A _clang_ sounded as an unseen knife fell to the floor. The second arm was now in his clutches to. Out from the darkness, he reeled in a struggling Kanaya Maryam.

He almost let go at the sight of that red skirt.

His family. His sister. His friend. What was she doing? He watched her struggle to break free.  He allowed his tendrils to slink around her legs so she would stay still. If he didn’t focus he would lose it. She was terrified. _Terrified of me…_

“No it’s not that…” Rose said aloud. She walked up to the silent, squirming girl Karkat was confining. “I… I don’t understand…” Rose muttered, eyeing Kanaya like _she_ was the one sprouting blood ropes.

“Go!” Kanaya finally yelled. “You have to leave! Please… please Karkat! Just-“the fear was constraining her voice. She found it once again. “He’s coming you _have to go!”_ Her eyes were wide, pleading with Karkat.

“Please! He’ll be here soon. You don’t understand. You don’t understand!”

Rose, calm as ever, put a hand on the other girls shoulder. Again, eyeing her like she couldn’t figure her out. “Please tell us what we need to understand,” her hand transferred some soothing thought because Kanaya’s struggling ceased for a moment. She took a shaking breath.

“Gamzee.”

 

Jade popped into the room looking worried. “There’s someone outside.”

Eridan tried to hide a smile. Dave had been watching him for some time. He was too quite.

Terezi had seen the smile too. “Jade, keep watching whoever’s outside.”

Vriska had walked up to Eridan. “Is it him?” Scarf boy only smirked a little more. Dave noticed Feferi and Sollux enchanting fearful glances. It was quick and small and scared the shit out of Dave.

Eridan let the tension build before breathing, “Who else would it be?”

At that moment Jade fell into the room. She kept flickering, like a light that was shorting out. “We-“ her voice, as well as her being, cut out for a moment,  “-need to get out of here now.” With a pained cry she pulled herself back into existence.

“Jade don’t you-“Vriska began, but Jade had already put her sights up. Green light flashed around them.

 

As if waiting for Kanaya’s cue, a figure slinked out of shadows of an adjacent hallway. The shadow of a human walked slowly, and carried something large. Into the lighted hallway he stepped. Blank eyes and a wide mop of frizzy hair greeted them. His head drifted from right to left, eyeing them each in turn. Black, clownish face paint intensified his stare. Gamzee loosely held a juggling pin at his side.

Karkat’s grip on Kanaya began to slack. _No. Not now. Fuck!_ She fell to the floor, shaking.

But it wasn’t just Karkat. Rose clutched her temples, concentrating with all she had left.  Desperate words were streaming from her mouth but Karkat couldn’t make them out.

“Go,” Kanaya breathed. She had acquired a certain brand of regality reserved only for the most formidable of enemies as she gracefully stood between Gamzee and the others.

_“Hooooonk.”_

“Kanaya don’t-“but John swept up the others before Karkat could finish.  John was failing too, and could only fly them back to the lobby where the others had just materialized.

“Kan-“again John stopped Karkat from yelling at her to stop.

Karkat shoved John’s hand away from his mouth and grabbed Terezi’s shoulders. “He’s here, Terezi. Kanaya is going to try to stop him. We can’t just stand here like fucking lobotomy hobbits we have to do something!”

Rose screamed.

It was sudden and shrill and heartbreaking in the ghastly bank. She fell to her knees, sobbing. “No, no, no, no, no…” her mutterings became indecipherable and more mournful with every syllable. Soon she was only a heaving lump on the floor.

“No,” Karkat echoed.

He ran and this time not even John could stop him. On and on, for what seemed like ages. Past the desk, past the room they had hid it, past where he knew Feferi, Sollux, and Eridan were no longer held, down the hall all the way to the end.

“No!”

He saw the red skirt first; it was flung out about the limp body.

“No!” Rushing to her side, he saw more red; red that shouldn’t be there. Red that dripped out of the gaping hole that had become Kanaya’s torso. Her black tee was still wet.

“No.” Karkat knelt beside her. Before he had realized it, he too was bleeding. Yes, rage had induced this sudden outburst of power but also pain. The snaking tendrils that flowed from his wrists delicately wound their path around Kanaya. He was embracing her with every fiber of his being, every part of his soul.

“Karkat…” Dave had followed him when he took off.

“Eridan did this…” Karkat’s words choked on tears and grief. “Eridan… that bastard…” He felt Dave’s hand on his shoulder.

There was a gasp behind them. Vriska and the others had arrived. Rose had composed herself, but not even she could hide the tears that streamed down her cheeks.

“Shit…” Vriska mumbled. The silence that flooded in between them was broken by Karkat’s occasional tortured sob.

A breeze picked up in the room. Terezi, Vriska, and Jade turned to John. He looked down at his body, clothes rippling in the wind he was generating. “We have our powers back,” he whispered.

Rose sniffled before finally walking over to Karkat. “We need to go before anyone finds us,” she told him gently. After another moment or two, his own blood slipped back inside him, along with any emotion he would show about what had just occurred.

“Let’s get out of here,” he said numbly. Dave took his hand, but felt no attempt of Karkat holding it back. Dave held on anyway.

“They left a note.” Terezi held out the slip of paper the rest of them had failed to notice. It was a very clear ultimatum: _Come to the meteor on Sunday, all of you. If not, they’ll be no need to return to your school on Monday. There’ll be nothing left._


	9. “Another Cup Of Tea”

Sometimes, friends gather in silence because all is right and good in the world. Other times, friends gather in silence for the exact opposite reason.

It was only about 1:30 when Jade had transported them all to Rose’s house. Her mom was passed out in one of the many rooms the mansion contained; there was no threat of waking her.

The six of them sat in the gigantic living room, a hot cup of tea waiting for each. Rose thought a cup of tea could solve anything. Tea had gotten her through everything. Tea made things better. She must have downed at least three mugs of Earl Grey before anyone said anything.

“Who was that?” Jade finally asked. “Why could- how did our powers… stop?” Her tea was getting cold. John also looked expectantly for answers.

“Gamzee… is a long story. Most of which we don’t know,” Vriska said. Her usual flare was only slightly dampened by her childhood friend’s death. Dave looked at Karkat to see if that struck any cords, but the boy seated next to him only stared into the mug he held. It was as if his thoughts were drifting though the liquid and he was trying to make sense of them.

“I think I’ll go now,” Karkat said standing up.

“I’ll meet you there in a minute,” Dave said before Jade teleported him away. She was back in an instant.

Vriska’s narrative continued, “There were twelve of us kids all together in the Alternian family. Now there’s only,” she paused to count on her fingers, “eight.

“All of us were raised on violence, it was a norm. Usually, though, we weren’t exposed to it. Only the stories made it our way. And of course we reveled in them. But Gamzee’s father was the Highblood, in charge of internal affairs. He exposed Gamzee to every trick in the book. There was nothing he didn’t know. And it got to him…

“It was surprisingly hard to find drugs in our little conclave, but Gamzee somehow managed to be perpetually stoned. I guess it was the only way he could deal. Last year, something happened to his supplier and…” Vriska trailed off, looking for more delicate words. At a loss she sighed, “He killed a boy named Equius and a girl named Nepeta.”

John, Rose, Dave, and Jade had never seen a dead body before last night. They had never had their lives threatened by other human beings. They had never known fear like they had now. 

“We didn’t see much of him after that. He just… disappeared.”

“Wait…” Dave had realized something, “…then how do we know Eridan killed Kanaya? Gamzee was right there.”

“It probably wasn’t his job to kill her,” Terezi answered. “And Eridan… well he was probably mad at her for letting us escape. He always trained with these ridiculous danger-needle-wand-like things. Gamzee would have clubbed her.” Her voice trailed off at the end.

_So why did Rose-_

_Please don’t ask._

The thought had been meant for Dave, but the point was been made clear to all of them.

“You said eight,” John pointed out. “Only three have-“he swallowed, “-died.”

“Tavros had an… incident,” Terezi glared at Vriska but no one felt up for asking why.

And so, they tentatively said their goodbyes, and agreed to meet in the lab tomorrow. Jade transported everyone home but John, who preferred to fly. Rose was left alone in the big mansion, pouring another cup of tea.

 

Dave stood outside his door once again, but this time he decided not to go back. Instead, he quietly walked into the room. He winced at the red that plastered the walls. His favorite color probably wasn’t what Karkat needed at the moment.

Karkat was asleep in Dave’s bed, like the first time he had come to Dave’s apartment. He looked upset, and had obviously been crying. Dave took off his shoes, hoodie, and pants then climbed into bed next to Karkat in his boxers and a tee.

Karkat snuggled close to him, and Dave let him.

“Sorry about the shit storm, Kit Kat,” he whispered before kissing Karkat’s forehead.

Karkat sighed sleepily, and Dave fell asleep too.


	10. “I Have Someone I’d Like You All To Meet”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Again, kinda linear to Homestuck, kinda creative license.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I accidently posted this without the italics, it just happened because I pasted it wrong. Sorry. I fixed it now.

The next day was stormy, like the sky itself was mourning a loss it didn’t understand. Karkat was unusually quiet. He hadn’t spoken of anything that had transpired last night.

 _The one time I wish Rose was here…_ Dave thought. He watched Karkat eat a bowl of cereal. They had slept late, but Rose still hadn’t texted him so he saw no reason to hurry. Still, the silence was unnerving. What was he thinking? What was he feeling?

“Karkat…?” Dave finally asked across the table.

“Hum?” he answered, looking up from his bowl.

“Uh… you wanna head over to the lab soon or…?” _or do want to talk? or make out? Damnit Dave, shut up._ He was back to being glad Rose was not in the immediate vicinity.

“Yeah, I need to do something.”

“What?”

“Anything.”

Karkat put his bowl in the sink and went over to his shoes. Dave sighed and texted Rose. He received an unexpected response: _I’m not there. Go ahead if you like, I’ll be another hour._

That was strange. It didn’t matter though, he understood what Karkat felt. He too had a burning desire to _do_ something. Sitting around wasn’t going to cut it.

“Hey Bro!” Dave called, “Can you give us a ride?”

 

Twenty minutes later Bro dropped them off at the Lalonde estate. Terezi and Vriska were just walking up to the front gate.

While the four of them walked up to the house, Terezi asked, “Cool kid, were my senses deceiving me, or was your Bro diving a Ferrari?”

“Dave, what does he even do?” Vriska questioned.

“He makes videos,” Dave said offhandedly.

Even Karkat did a double take. _“…what kind of videos?”_

“Um…” Dave hissed in a breath. “Would you believe me if I said it involved puppets?”

“You’re full of shit, Strider,” Vriska noted as they walked through the front door.

The big house was empty, as usual. Some bustling could be heard upstairs. They were all used to Ms. Lalonde’s antics. Everyone called her Mom because, coincidentally, she was the only mom any of them really had at the moment.

John and Jade showed up a little while later.

This time, the group congregated in the kitchen. None of them really felt like sitting in the living room where the horrors of last night had been discussed. They made themselves at home, as they had done so many times before while figuring out new tricks their powers held. The first time Jade teleported was in this room. She and John played their game with various cups and mugs. They had a good half hour to kill so Dave began to move objects around while stopping time. It took Jade and John a while to figure it out but when they did the game sped up. That’s when Terezi thought up striking the cup before Jade could even hit it. Vriska would will one of them to mess up every once in a while, just to shake things up. Even Karkat joined in, yelling profanities at any of them who managed to shatter the game pieces.

“Are you five breaking my mugs again?” Rose wasn’t even in the kitchen yet.

She walked in just as Dave had frozen time and put them all away. Each one was the picture of innocence.

Rose cleared her throat and eyed a shard of ceramic on the floor. Vriska willed her to look the other way as Jade flashed the evidence who knows were. “You guys are ridiculous,” Rose sighed.

“ _Anyways,”_ she continued, “I have someone I’d like you all to meet. Calliope?”

A tall adult walked into the room. They had startling green eyes and a long coat. Short brown hair framed a… feminine? masculine? face. None of them felt it would be polite to ask. They just tiptoed around pronouns while introducing themselves.

”Hey…” John started, “Weren’t you the doctor that treated my arm?”

“And my cut, and you were the doctor who treated Karkat,” Dave added.

“Yeah, I remember you from the hospital too,” Vriska said.

Terezi was muttering, “I still couldn’t see. I have no idea who the hell this is.”

“Yes,” Rose confirmed. “Calliope also treated Jade and I.”

Calliope smiled a confirmation but it held no happiness behind it. It was almost sad. Rose offered her a cup of tea. The pleasantry was met with a flurry of groans from the rest of them. Rose glared at in response.

After everyone had gotten settled Rose asked Calliope, “Could you please tell them what you told me?”

“Of course.” Calliope spoke with a slight British lit. She looked shy. _Fearful._ Rose had projected the thought to all of them.

Calliope began, “About last October something extraordinary occurred. I woke up one day and I felt… different. I even looked a bit strange but at the moment I really didn’t care. See, I went to get my coffee but when I touched the mug for a moment I felt how small it was compared to the whole of everything else.” Calliope looked around, making sure they weren’t simply humoring their guest. All the faces staring back were dead serious, so Calliope continued, “It went on but other things began to happen. I started losing time. Some days completely passed me by. My coworkers told me I had shown up for work, treated patients, but I can’t recall any of it.

“After about a month of this, I began to get scared. Sometimes I might pick up a pen and it was like its cosmic significance was tangible and… well it was quite overwhelming. So, I contacted my brother. We hadn’t spoken in years. Our childhood was-“Calliope looked down at the tea, she couldn’t find words. “He was very, very awful.” She looked at them, trying to emphasize her words. “Caliborn.” Calliope shuddered at the name.

After a few sips of tea Calliope recovered. “But he had disappeared, off the face of the Earth it seems. I didn’t think anything of it until about last June. I began losing more and more time and it worried me, so I checked my patient records. All your diagnoses didn’t make a spot of sense. And it was like I simply could not tell anyone. Finally Rose showed up at the hospital informed me that you all would like to meet me so… here I am.” That small, sad smile closed the narrative.

_Vriska, please allow Calliope here to space out the next few moments while we talk._

_On it._

The conversation was heard by all except the now drowsy looking doctor.

“Rose, what’s going on?” Vriska demanded.

“Okay, I had been skirting around different theories on how we got our powers and I always fell back on the hospital, right?”

They nodded.

“But I never bothered to check because we were all too busy trying not to decimate a house, or rip the space time continuum. But when Karkat told us his story, I began to wonder if our powers weren’t accidents after all. Think about it, who else would be so crazy and powerful to even attempt something of this sort?”

“The Condesce…” Terezi breathed.

“Correct!” Rose was getting excited. “And now I have confirmation: Gamzee. How else could he have stopped our abilities if he himself hadn’t known about it in one way or another? It all connects. And you know what else? I think only Eridan knows. I looked inside his sleazy little brain and I saw his secretive nature- Feferi doesn’t know the half of it!

“Something is going on and this doctor is a part of it. But how? Karkat was about to ask. I will tell you!” Now they knew she was on a roll. Rose thought it impolite to use mind reading to get ahead in a conversation, but when she was explaining things you just had to step back and roll with it. “Calliope doesn’t know what they’re doing! I can see it! There are so, so many gaps in that brain. I believe those gaps are filled by an entirely different entity altogether: Caliborn. I believe Caliborn is working with the Condesce.”

John raised his hand. Rose nodded to him. “So… Calliope and Caliborn is the same person?”

“It would appear that they are. We don’t know the half of who or what Caliborn is.” She let that piece of information hang in the air.

They were stunned. It all made sense. The pieces fell into place. Rose had solved it.

“…so what do we do?” Jade asked.

“Vriska is the strategist here, what do you propose?” Rose responded.

Vriska sat in thought for a moment, staring at the drooling figure that sat across from her. “The Meteor… that’s what the note referred to. It’s an old warehouse; we found it as kids. It’s perfect for hiding people… Gamzee could wreck us. We’re going to have to rely on other things, our powers just won’t do.”

“Is there any way to incapacitate Gamzee?” Dave asked.

“I fully support that line of thought Dave but perhaps first we can release our doctor here. Say nothing, I’ll lead Calliope out, and we can continue planning,” Rose said.

“I still don’t know how I can help you,” Calliope finished a thought she had started a while ago.

“You’ve helped us more than you know,” Rose assured her, a bit ominously. She led Calliope outside and thanked the confused doctor one more time before returning to the kitchen.

“Let the planning begin,” she announced.

 

The little band of teenagers ending up staying the night at Rose’s house. Their planning went on late into the evening. Even after every detail they could conceive had been thought out, the paper containing the plan was not much comfort. None of them slept easily that night. After all, the plan _looked_ well on paper but, how often did that turn out to be enough?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was the best way I figured to write Calliope/Caliborn. Humanstucks take some creativity. I hope you like it! Thanks for reading!


	11. “It Is Not Even Eight Yet”

It was about 7 am when Dave had frozen time the next morning. Karkat was lying on his stomach in the rose garden. Dave lay with his head on Karkat’s back and watched him rip up rose petals. Earlier that morning, Karkat had been shaking in his sleep, so Dave woke him up and they went out here.

Dave rolled off Karkat and positioned himself so that they were side by side. He put one hand on Karkat’s ever fidgeting fingers and the other on his cheek. Karkat looked up.

“Those sunglasses are fucking ridiculous, Strider,” Karkat muttered before leaning over and kissing him.

“Fuck you my shades are bitchin,” Dave said after they had pulled away.

For a few moments they laid there, watching each other. Finally Dave got up the nerve to ask, “Do you want to talk about her?”

“Not particularly,” Karkat replied, rolling onto his back to watch the still morning sky. Yesterday’s clouds were almost gone. A few puffy cumuli hung unmoving against the blue background. “I’m just hoping our fucked up plan doesn’t end up fucking us over any more than we’ve been fucked already. I mean, we are a bunch of sluts. We fuck ourselves over daily. This shit barrel of utter fuckery just might fuck us sideways with a rusty bucket of goddamn fuck flowers. This fu-“Dave pressed his lips against Karkat’s to shut him up.

It worked very effectively, or so Dave had decided after Karkat began running his fingers though Dave’s hair. Dave crawled on top of Karkat and looked down at the other boy. “Kit Kat, we’ll have Gamzee under control. Terezi is our secret weapon, remember? She’s cultivated her senses so much that it’s not even a superpower anymore; she’s just a fucking ninja. Her only ability is smelling colors; the rest is pure will powers. Everything will-“this time is was Karkat’s turn to shut Dave up.

He grabbed Dave’s shirt neck and pulled him down. Dave gladly met Karkat lying down, and let their lips dance. Karkat was breathing deeply as Dave began to press himself against harder and harder onto the boy underneath him. “…Karkat…” Dave whispered into his ear before gently biting the earlobe.

“Yeah…?” Karkat answered in between breathes.

“I seriously have to let time ago again or I’ll have zero fucking energy for this battle.”

Karkat scoffed and pushed Dave off of him. “Well _that_ was fucking sexy,” he said sarcastically. The clouds above them were continuing their lazy meander across the sky.

“Well, Karkat,” Dave spoke loudly as they entered the house, “if you wanted someone to blow you, you should have asked Mr. Windsock over there.”

“…the fuck, Dave?” John called from the kitchen.

“Strider, you fuckrod,” Karkat muttered, much to Dave’s delight, as they walked into the kitchen. Jade rolled her eyes as she set two plates of pancakes in front of them.

Vriska stumbled in before Dave could retort to the fuckrod remark. “Why,” she spoke in an exasperated tone, “is everyone being so fucking loud? It is not even eight yet. What. The. Fuck.”

 _Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed,_ Rose projected to all of them but one as she took a sip of tea. Vriska responded to the flurry of giggles with a death glare that shut them all up.

“Coffee is in the cupboard to your left,” Rose answered Vriska’s unspoken question.

“I smelled pancakes…” Terezi said with a yawn before plopping down at the table with the rest of them. Jade set a plate down for the new comer and Terezi smiled groggily.

“But seriously, why _are_ we up so early?” Jade asked while sitting down herself.

“Becaaaaause,” Vriska said, “we have to set up for this hellish meeting that, by the way, those fuckasses didn’t even give us a time for! So we want to prepare as early as possible.”

“Eridan is such a dumbfuck,” Terezi declared before happily digging into her pancakes.

About half way through breakfast John became confused. “Hey… guys?” He was looking incredulously at his phone. They all stared at him. “…shouldn’t the news have reported on a bank that was almost robbed last night?” He held out his phone. It had a news app opened with absolutely no mention of the bank. “I mean… even if they did manage to deal with… the mess… a blown up door is a little harder to hide, don’t you think?”

No one had an answer. Even the Condesce would have to have a cover story of some kind. There was nothing on social media either. They even sent Jade, who came back reporting the bank was closed because it’s Sunday, but she looked around inside. No evidence of last night whatsoever.

They ate the rest of their pancakes in silence.

A few hours later and the group was as ready as they could be.

 

John had ghosted through every inch of the warehouse. There was no one there. Vriska, Karkat, and Rose stayed inside the Meteor after that, with Dave keeping watch outside. Jade and John patrolled the vicinity, watching for any suspicious activity they could find. As for Terezi, she sat still on the Meteor roof, breathing in everything she could, and prepared to meet her adversary. They waited for hours, but better to be prepared than caught off guard.

Around noon Jade spotted an unlicensed black car heading in their direction.

“Terezi,” she appeared next to her, “I think it’s them.”


	12. “It Wasn’t Gamzee”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Whoa! Plot stuff!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some of this is directly from HS, other is more me stuff. Anyways, thanks for reading!

“John! Stop fangirling over her, let’s go!” Jade called as she teleported in ten meter leaps. “I know Terezi is cool, but jeez!”

“Sorry!” John responded after he tore his eyes away from Terezi. She looked like a lizard, running quickly over the rooftops towards her prey. Jumping from roof to roof was easy; tracking the noise of the car was easier. “Wow,” John breathed as he blew around her.

Jade gave John the signal that she was leaving and John nodded back. His job was to keep with Terezi until his powers let up. They were almost to the car. Any second now he would begin to feel himself fade. Any moment now. They were parallel with the car in the street below. _Why am I still able to fly?_ John thought.

Terezi leapt onto the vehicle’s roof, stabbing it with her sword as she did. The car screeched to a stop.

_This isn’t right…_

The driver’s door opened. Gamzee himself stepped out, looking dazed and wrong in the bright sunlight. From above, John saw Gamzee snap alert as soon as he laid eyes on Terezi. A few words were spoken that John couldn’t hear. He was too high up. _Shouldn’t he be affecting me? Even from this height._

Closer and closer John drifted earthward.

He heard Terezi saying “…I don’t really want to kill you, but after what you did to Kanaya, I have no choice but to give you justice.”

Gamzee’s dazed look was gone. Now he was almost twitching. Still, his face was contorted with confusion. For a moment, John thought he would just walk away. Quietly, Gamzee whispered, “Honk?”

Terezi lowered her sword an inch.

“Honk!”

With that the fight was off. Terezi gracefully dodging attacks, Gamzee seizing every opening he could. Terezi thrust her blade into his leg and he cried out with rage.

“That was quick,” John said looking at Gamzee. He sat grasping his calf where Terezi’s sword had pierced him.

John and Terezi faced each other. “Something’s wrong,” they both said in a chorus.

“Go,” Terezi commanded him.

John nodded and disappeared. He took off towards the warehouse immediately. _That was too easy,_ he thought. He couldn’t resist looking back, even though the other warehouses were blocking his view. His vision was obscured, that’s why it looked like Gamzee was getting up. _Terezi’s fine,_ he told himself, _she can handle anything._

John hadn’t seen Gamzee grab her from behind, and crack her skull on the pavement.

 

Dave was running away from the Meteor. “John!”he yelled at the sky. “You have to be fucking invisible now? Now!”   _Fuck! Where the hell are you?_

A swirl of air shimmered a block away. John appeared ten feet above the ground, falling in the process.

“John!” Dave ran towards him.

“Dave?” John held the arm he had fallen on. “What’s happening?”

He had to take a few deep breaths, the running and the panic was consuming him. Finally he got out, “I don’t know! Rose was relaying reports of the inside to me periodically. Then, all of the sudden I hear ‘Don’t come in! Get help!’ and that was it! I’ve been running-“his short breath caught up with him. “How did Gamzee get in there without us seeing?”

“It wasn’t Gamzee,” John told him.

“What?”

“Terezi took care of him. I was there. He didn’t affect me at all. It’s someone else.” John had begun to pace. He glanced at his arm. No air flowed off of his skin. It wasn’t right.

“We have to do something! They’re still in there!” Dave had begun to hyperventilate. “Karkat’s still in there! We’re- we’re- we’re just a bunch of kids! What the hell do we do?”

“Dave!” John yelled. “Calm! Down! Panic won’t get us anywhere. We just… uh. We have too…”

The two boys stood helpless in the afternoon sun. Dave noticed how ludicrous the whole situation was. He didn’t care. _Come on John! Think!_ He yelled silently. John paced and ran his hands through his hair. _Think, think, think!_

“Augh! Let’s just storm the fucking place!” John shouted. “I don’t have a better plan!”

Neither did Dave. They began walking back.

“Karkat once told me,  ‘If you wonder into a field of fuck flowers on a day of shitmania, hoard the forbidden flora with all you hold dear, for then you shall have fucks to give in the most fuckless of hours.’ I never quite understood what he meant until now,” Dave mentioned to John as they approached the door.

“That was beautiful, Dave,” was all John could reply.

“I know, man. I know.”

John knocked on the door.


	13. “I Had Help”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Plot twists and death and stuff....

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The only reason I put a graphic warning on this was because of this chapter, but it's probably not even worth a warning. Actual HS is worse, most likely. I hope you like suspense-y stuff.

_Did you seriously just knock?_ Dave was face palming before the door even opened.

The Meteor was a large and metal. A few giant garage style doors took up one enormous side. Dave and John stood in front of the smaller sized side door near the corner of the building. The handle turned and slowly the door opened into darkness.

Dave and John gave each other one last glance before starting into the abyss before them.

Two steps in and the door shut behind them.

“I can’t see a fucking thing, John.”

“Take off those sunglasses, there’s a few holes in the ceiling.”

“Oh.”

“Dave! What was that?”

“It’s me you dumbass.”

A single round light flickered to life above them. John let go of Dave’s arm, and Dave put his shades back on. They had been walking down an aisle in between tall, empty shelves.

“Do you think-“Dave shushed John.

“Listen…” he breathed.

Noises were coming from somewhere down the aisle. Slowly, the two began moving towards it. The further they got into the darkness the more they heard the noise. It sounded like gagged crying. More noise had joined the chorus of agony. Someone was trying to scream but it sounded as if they had something blocking their mouth.

A second light flicked on at the end of the isle. There was nothing there.

Dave and John crept until the end. Again the muffled screaming began. It was around the corner. _Dave,_ John mouthed.

_What?_

John looked terrified. He pointed a shaking finger at his feet. His blue shoe was stepping in a puddle of dark liquid. Dave swallowed hard before nodding to John and signaling to the corner where the noise was coming from. John nodded back. They turned around the shelf.

An agonizing noise escaped John’s lips. Rose’s lifeless body laid face first on the warehouse floor. The blood oozing from under her torso soaked the concrete. Vriska and Karkat were tied to chairs behind her. Karkat tried to yell something through his gag but it was too tight. Vriska was smarter. She dipped her foot in the blood around her and frantically tried to write something. It was backwards but Dave could see the E then the R then the J? Her foot had slipped. Dave looked to see why.

Vriska’s head was slumped over her chest. A long white object was protruding from her abdomen. It slipped away from her twitching body. The arm that had wielded it slunk back into the shadows.

Karkat was screaming again. Dave was afraid to move. What if Karkat was next?

“She was trying to write Eridan. “

He stepped out of the shadows wiping the bloody needle off with a rag. As soon as he was satisfied he threw the cloth atop of Vriska’s head. “I’m glad you could make it.”

Dave lurched towards Karkat and began to untie him. Eridan looked annoyed but didn’t try to stop the development. Dave pulled the gag out of Karkat’s mouth leading to a fury of “What the fuck do you think you’re doing here you imbecile? Get out!”

Once the ropes were off Karkat stood up in front of Dave. He glared daggers at Eridan’s smug face.

“It was you all along,” John spat. “You caused this. All of this!”

“Well not all of it,” Eridan said, taking Karkat’s seat. “I had _help_ ,” he whispered the last word ominously and looked up expectantly. After a moment of nothing, there were footsteps heard on the shelves above.

“Who-“John began. A large black object fell in front of them with a _foop!_

“Jade!” John cried. He knelt down beside his friend and desperately searched for any sign of life. He went to listen for a heartbeat then gasped. He lifted his head and half his face was covered in blood. In the shadows and Jade’s black hoodie, he hadn’t noticed the bullet hole that pierced her heart, or the warm blood that was pouring out of it.

Dave grasped Karkat’s hand when John stood up. He had never seen John so calm. John walked up to Eridan and slapped the needles out of his hands.

“My wands-,” Eridan protested. John punched him in the face with a hard right hook. Eridan cried out. John punched him again.

“Who?” John asked quietly. When Eridan didn’t respond, he punched him a third time.

“Ask ‘em for yourself!” Eridan yelled.

There was creaking in the shelves above the four boys. They heard someone drop to the floor in the shadows further down the aisle. Footsteps echoed and sounded like thunder in the silence. A familiar face with unfamiliar red eyes emerged from the darkness.

“Calliope?” Dave asked in shock.

“It’s Caliborn. Actually,” the figure replied, agitated.

“People always. Wrong,” Caliborn spoke in choppy sentences.

John left the bloodied Eridan to face Caliborn. “Why?” John’s fists were clenched tight and shaking.

“John!” Dave yelled as Eridan sprang up on John’s turned back. Dave jumped and tackled the other boy into the wet concrete. Eridan kicked Dave in the abdomen, knocking the wind out of him before Karkat could aid him. Eridan was already running away into the darkness when a strange sputtering filled the air.

“No!” Dave yelled. Caliborn had picked up one of Eridan’s ‘wands ‘and then impaled John’s heart. John fell in between Rose and Jade coughing up blood before he too lay still among them.

“Karkat, get behind me,” Dave said locking eyes with Caliborn. Dave reached on arm behind himself to hold Karkat’s hand and also push him back. He ended up doing the later and blindly gripping Karkat’s hand at the same time. Caliborn gave a little sneer before disappearing altogether. Karkat’s grip vanished too.

Dave spun around but there was no one there.

“Looking for this? Little shit.” Caliborn was sitting where Eridan had been, holding a limp Karkat by his shirt collar.

Dave ran to Karkat, but he couldn’t. It was like a dream. His legs were moving but something was rushing against him. Caliborn stood up, dropping Karkat. Yet Karkat fell slowly, as if also affected by the flow that was fighting against Dave. _Time. Caliborn is slowing time._

There was nothing he could do. Even as Caliborn approached him with the handgun, he kept running to Karkat. He must have been five feet away. Dave pushed and pushed even as Caliborn pulled the trigger. The bullet moved painfully slow, but there was nothing to be done about Dave’s path right into it.

With an annoyed sigh and a look of disgust, Caliborn slunk back into the darkness.

It seemed like long, painful minutes to Dave as he pushed towards Karkat, and the bullet pushed towards him. Suddenly, everything happened.

Dave covered the last few steps in a moment and caught Karkat. The bullet pierced Dave’s side, somewhere in his stomach. The pain consumed everything. He held on to Karkat in a desperate attempt to hold on to something, anything. But Karkat did not hold him back. It was with that realization that Dave let into the pain, and allowed the darkness to consume him.


	14. “Dying Was A Dick Move”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reveals and explanations and stuff! (Btw I never knew there was a chapter summary thing on here until I got an account so I'm just kinda treating it like my notes in class tbh)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More Davekat stuff. The funny thing is, I originally wrote this around a one shot I had been toying with where Karkat gets braces and the big deal is "Superheroes can't have braces!" I never got around to putting it in here, it wasn't really story relevant. Writing is like that.

Something was wrong.

He wasn’t dead. Was he dead? Dave couldn’t tell. One thing was for sure, heaven (or hell, you never know) was really comfortable. There was someone lying beside him. He opened his eyes. Karkat had snuggled up next to Dave’s arm some time ago because it was pretty tingly. _Wait, tingly equals not dead._

Dave gasped, waking Karkat.

“You’re awake,” Karkat said.

“You’re alive,” Dave replied.

Dave smiled and pulled Karkat closer, kissing him hard. Karkat shivered at Dave’s touch. “You’re alive,” Dave kept repeating. He kissed Karkat’s lips. “You’re alive.” He kissed Karkat’s neck. “You’re alive” he slipped off Karkat’s shirt and kissed his chest. “You’re alive.”

Karkat pushed Dave down and straddled him on the soft bed. “Of course I am, you fuck,” he said before going down to meet Dave’s lips. Dave leaned up so that Karkat could pull Dave’s shirt off also. Then Karkat pushed Dave back down, kissing him hard and harder, moving his body in time with his lips.

Dave let his hands fly on Karkat’s bare skin. He was really here. He was really alive. _He is really sticking his tongue in my mouth oh fucks of fuck oh fuck._ A moan was muffled by Karkat’s mouth.  Dave ran his fingers through the other boy’s dark hair. He moved his hands down Karkat’s back, trying to push his body closer to his own, even though their hips were already tight against each other.

Karkat moved down to Dave’s neck, kissing and rolling his body again and again onto Dave. They moved in a rhythm of pushing and pulling and _oh my shit he’s biting me._ Involuntarily, Dave’s back arched upward with a gasp, and Karkat shoved him back down, and then returned to Dave’s mouth.

They were breathless when they heard a knock at the door.

Terezi’s voice flowed in, saying, “I don’t know what the hell you two are doing in there, but Rose told me to tell you guys to come downstairs and she _specified_ to _knock._ So, at least have clothes on or something.”

“Dammit, Terezi,” Karkat breathed. He let his head rest on Dave’s chest.

Dave laughed softly. “Kit Kat what the fuck is on. Are we in Rose’s house?”

“I think so. I woke up an hour ago screaming for you. Rose helped me into here and I crashed again. I have no idea how we’re alive.”

Dave brushed the hair away from Karkat’s face and looked at him. “Then we better go find out.” He sighed and sat up, handing Karkat his shirt. They had both somehow found themselves in comfortable pajamas. Dave checked where the bullet had pierced him; there was no trace.

 

Together they walked down into the living room. Jade and John were as oblivious as ever, playing their game with a set of marbles. Vriska and Terezi could be seen through the glass doors to the rose garden talking to someone. Rose waited for them at the bottom of the stairs. She looked smug.

“You two waste no time I see,” she noted before calling silently alerting the girls outside.

“You’re awake!” Jade finally saw them. She and John rushed up to hug the two boys. Three figures walked in from outside.

“Hi, Karkat,” a familiar voice said.

“Kanaya!” Vriska and Terezi stepped out of the way as Karkat rushed to hug his friend. “I thought you had died!”

“We all seem to die sooner or later, don’t we?” Kanaya said, still hugging Karkat. “I’m so sorry I couldn’t protect you,” she whispered. “I thought I was doing the right thing by staying, I believed what the Condesce always told us. I was a fool for not trusting you. I am so, so sorry.”

“Kanaya,” he whispered back, “Don’t apologize to me again. Dying was a dick move.”

She laughed and they pulled away. Karkat’s stomach began to growl.

“Brunch is outside!” Rose yelled from the rose garden.  Everyone migrated out to a long table Rose had set up. Quiches, sausages, toast, and other breakfast foods were set up on the white table cloth. “What,” Rose said, pouring some orange juice, “I woke up pretty early.”

“Why do we keep saying ‘woke up’?” Dave asked as he sat down with the rest of them.

“First things first,” Rose said. “It’s Monday afternoon. We’ve been out a while. Second: we ‘woke up’ in the order we were… well we were killed in. Good thing Kanaya was there. Actually, she should tell it.” Rose gave Kanaya a little smile before pulling her eyes away. Kanaya tilted her head for a moment, amused, before addressing the table.

“Well,” she began, “after Eridan had… killed me… back at the bank, something strange happened. I woke up in a hotel with Aradia. Now, the Megidos are known among Alternians to do foreign business. I didn’t know what Aradia was doing here, and I was scared and confused.

“But she told me everything. Her mother, deemed Handmaid, runs crime circles in Asia and handles all Alternian business in that area. The Handmaid had been dealing under the table with a man named Scratch for years.

“Scratch had asked for many things that locals of the area thought to be supernatural. He was looking for magic. He must have found it because I can’t explain how else Aradia revived me. There were… complications but I was alive and that was all that mattered.

“With Eridan assuming I was deceased, and Aradia’s ‘magic’ we found out what had been going on. About two years ago, Eridan met the Scratch man. It was a random encounter but after that, Scratch had direct access to any Alternian information. Scratch was looking for subjects to do tests on. They choose Gamzee, because he frequently disappeared anyways.

“Whatever experiments Scratch did on Gamzee affected him in spectacular ways. He is no longer susceptible to any form of injury. But the Highblood was noticing the changes in his son’s behavior, and started keeping a closer eye on him.

“One day he found out, and swore to Scratch that if he ever laid a hand on his son again that he would seek revenge. Around this time was when Gamzee had his ‘snap’. After Equius and Nepeta, Eridan was the one was shut him away from the world. Eridan saw his potential and waited.

“So, with no test subject Scratch began to do experiments on himself. The magic somehow went horribly wrong, I don’t know how. But he somehow managed to contact his sister before the spell, or whatever, affected him. By the time she had shown up whatever was happening was in full swing. Their beings merged. The two Scratches, Caliborn and Calliope, were one.

“I believe you know most of the story from there. Doctor Scratch seized every opportunity to experiment on unwilling patients. They were all meant to die, that’s why each one of your injuries was so severe. But the small conscious part of Calliope saved her patients, and made them stronger.

“That’s why you all have the powers you do. Caliborn had meant to experiment and kill you but it never worked out that way. And, I guess whatever they did to you also rendered you immortal.

“Aradia and I had been tailing you to see what would happen. After the bank, Eridan had gone ballistic. He killed Feferi. We planned to protect you, but after Scratch was in the vicinity, we both were useless. It seems as though Scratch developed with a knack for suppressing other abilities. It was very awful knowing that you were dying and I wasn’t able to help.” Her eyes flickered to Karkat before continuing.

“First we found Terezi. Then we discovered the rest of you inside. Aradia somehow magaged to get you all into a pickup and drive you here. She magic-ed you all clean, somehow threw you into some pajamas, and left.

“I don’t know where she is now. She seems to come and go as she pleases.

“I waited for you to wake up. First Terezi, I explained to her what had happened, then Rose, who somehow knew what had occurred, then Vriska, then Jade, and John, and you two.

“And here we are,” she finished. Kanaya looked into her lap. No one took their eyes off her.

Rose cleared her throat. “Are you forgetting something?”

Kanaya kept her eyes in her lap. In a quite voice she added, “I did manage to run into Eridan. And when I say run into I mean I literally ran into him… with a chainsaw.”

All of them gaped at Kanaya; except for Rose of course. She simply smiled and poured more juice. Finally John piped up, “A few minutes ago, you said… immortal?”

She looked apologetically at him, “That does seem to be the case. I’m sorry.”

Vriska was buttering a piece of toast. “You said there was a ‘complication’ with your resurrection. What the fuck does that mean?”

Again Kanaya looked embarrassed. She eyed her empty plate and slouched in her seat a bit. “…I seem to have become a vampire.”

Vriska dropped her knife, “Yes.” Kanaya looked up. “Hell yes.” Vriska put her hands on the table. “Hell. Fucking. Yes.”

There were more questions and more answers after that. Altogether it was a quite lovely brunch for eight people who had been dead less than two days ago.

Dave leaned over to Karkat, “This is a lot better than going to school, wouldn’t you agree?”

Karkat rolled his eyes, took a bite of eggs, and then nodded. “Yeah, I guess it is.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah, poorly written fluff and resurrections, that's how come back from cliffhangers, thanks for reading!


	15. “She Scares Me Sometimes”

By the end of brunch the group had decided to take a while to just recharge. Everyone disappeared to their respective places in the Lalonde mansion. Dave and Karkat snuck back to their room, earning an eye roll from Rose. Rose and Kanaya ended up in a crafts room; Kanaya tended to sew when she thought, and Rose decided she liked to watch her. Jade was petting a cat she had found outside since John was inside planning with Vriska and Terezi. The three of them sat scheming at the kitchen table.

A few hours later they all congregated in the lab.

Everyone milled about before Rose called attention. She sat in on one of her stools in front of a table that held one of the various chemistry sets that dotted the laboratory.

She cleared her throat. “Kanaya thinks she has a way to contain Caliborn.”

“Shouldn’t we try to separate Calliope first?” Jade asked.

Kanaya frowned, “I honestly don’t know if that’s possible.”

John agreed with Jade, “We at least have to try.”

“John,” Terezi said gently, “Let’s just listen to their plan first and then see.”

Rose nodded and explained, “Aradia mentioned to Kanaya something about a chest. It was supposedly what bound the Scratches together in the first place. We believe that even if the chest doesn’t contain something to separate the two, it may at least hold something to stop Caliborn.”

“And just how _will we get_ this all powerful treasure, exactly?” Vriska inquired.

“Sollux…” Karkat said under his breath.

Kanaya had heard him. “Yes, Sollux. He was always keeping in contact with Aradia and I believe if can get to him, he can get to her, and she can get us to the chest.”

“What if that doesn’t work?” Vriska challenged. “What if Sollux double crosses us? What then?”

“I think Sollux will do anything to avenge Feferi,” Kanaya pointed out quietly.

“Good point,” Vriska responded.

“So how do we get to Sollux?” Jade asked.

“Well… we could always just email him,” Kanaya suggested.

“Are you fucking crazy?” Karkat asked throwing his hands up. “Come on Kan! Email? Don’t you think someone is monitoring that shit?” Dave let out a laugh despite himself. “Shut it, Strider.”

“Karkat,” Vriska said, bored, “Who the hell would be monitoring him? Eridan is dead, so is basically everyone else. That means Equius, Nepeta, and Tavros aren’t a problem.  The three of us aren’t going to do anything. And Gamzee? No ‘motherfucking miracle’ is going to improve his hacking skills. If we want to worry about hacking, that’s Sollux’s expertise. And what’s he going to do? Hack into his own email? None of the adults give a shit about this. I doubt they even know what’s going on.”

Karkat merely scowled and went back to doodling on some old lab report he had found.

Kanaya walked over to a computer and took a seat. Rose stood up and walked next to her. “www.twinArmageddons@trollian.com?” Rose asked.

Kanaya sighed, “We have a secure server and for a while we all basically socialized through the Internet. Our user names stuck.” She pointed the curser to her own email address.

“I see Miss grimAuxiliatrix,” Rose noted.

Again Kanaya sighed and typed the email. It read: _If Aradia Hasn’t Already Told You I Am Alive. Please Help Us Contact Her. Thank You._

“Why do you type like that?” Jade asked, peering at the computer screen.

“During our initial exposure to the Internet, we decided quirks would be a good edition to our typing. I guess it also just stuck,” Kanaya answered. “We shouldn’t have to wait long, Sollux never leaves his computer.”

Jade sat on the table that held one bank of numerous computers. “Yeah, we went through a phase like that. Each one of us got a Pesterchum account. It was ridiculous.”

“All these trolls kept harassing us though,” John added.

Terezi let out a laugh. “Oh my god! I remember going on there! There were all these noobs we always messed with! Who was it… something like echoghost was my favorite; he was a riot!”

John squinted at her. “ghostyTrickster?”

“Yeah! Yeah! That was it! He disappeared after a while.” Her laughter was dying down. “What?”

“I changed my account from ghostyTrickster to ectoBiologist to throw a troll off my case,” John said.

Again Terezi burst into a fit of laughter. “It was you! Oh sweet jegus it was you!”

Dave gave Karkat an odd look, “You don’t happen to know anyone who went by carcinoGeneticist do you?”

“Uh,” Karkat glanced around, “Hey look something’s going on at the computer!”  

Kanaya looked too see what Karkat was talking about and sure enough there was a blinking icon of a bee on the screen. She clicked it. A video chat opened up revealing a tired looking boy with blue and red glasses.

Sollux laughed amused laughter, “She really did it. Aradia brought you back.”

“Hello, Sollux,” Kanaya greeted him. “How are you?”

Everyone had gathered around the computer to watch the conversation. Sollux rubbed eyes under his glasses and sighed. “Not the best. After the bank, well, you know this. Eridan killed Feferi. He did a number on me too.” He lifted up his shirt to reveal several nasty looking bruises. “I heard you took care of him.” He laughed again. “Aradia explained everything before she left to… who knows where. I swear she’s been practicing this magic shit for years.”

“Sollux,” Vriska pushed her way next to Kanaya, “did Aradia say anything about a chest?”

Sollux scoffed, “Yeah. She told me it all, even what you guys had in mind. She left it for you.”

“Where?”  Vriska asked.

“In that lab. She said she put it way in the back, where the lights were burned out.”

Vriska went to grab a flash light but Rose shook her head and grabbed Kanaya’s hand. “We’ll handle this,” she said. Kanaya looked skeptically at their interlocked fingers, then shrugged, and allowed her skin to illuminate before them. Again, everyone but Rose was surprised. They walked off into the darker reaches of the lab and Vriska took the seat in front of the screen.   
“What else did she tell you, Sol?” Vriska questioned.

“Not much else,” after a moment’s pause he added,   “She’s coming back for me. We’re going to leave together.”

Vriska could care less for sentiment. “That’s adorable Sol but what’s inside the chest?”

Just as she said that the two returned. Kanaya was carrying a small red chest in front of her. “It’s quite heavy,” she said setting it down with a _thud._ “What _is_ in there?”

Sollux left the screen for a moment before returning with a large book. “She left me with this. _~ATH - A Handbook for the Imminently Deceased._ I’ve been trying to make sense of it. But as far as I can tell it’s written in programming code. I really don’t know what the chest is.” He flipped through the giant book’s pages. Then he stopped, and slowly went back to something that caught his eye. “She scares me sometimes,” he said holding up a red slip of paper. He read it aloud, “’Do not open chest. It is filled with irreversible magic that can be used only once. Aim at target. Good luck.’ Uh, then there’s a little face.” He held the paper up to display the 0_0.

“So…” Jade interrupted, “There’s no hope of splitting them apart?”

Sollux looked back at the book, “I don’t think so. In my opinion you should get rid of that monster as fast as you can.” Jade looked away. Sollux added, “Hey, don’t be sad, there’s always the ghosts.”

“What?” Terezi and Vriska said in a chorus.

Sollux turned around on the screen. “Ready?” a voice was heard quietly through the computer speakers.

“Aradia?” Vriska asked.

An Asian girl walked over into the screen’s viewpoint. She smiled and winked before hitting a button on Sollux’s keyboard. The screen went black.

Vriska let out a long sigh and leaned back in the chair, muttering, “…fucking theatrics.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I never even planned to write Aradia in, it just kind of happened that way.


	16. “I Feared As Much…”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Resolution-y, Climatic-y, stuff...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (This is just a lil 6/29 upd8 rant) Bro. Freaking. Strider. Okay, the apartment and Bro and everything even remotely concerned about Bro in this fic is completely idealized. There's no denying that. That said, BRO. FREAKING. STRIDER. OH MY FUCK.

That night, the eight of them stood outside Can Town Hospital. Kanaya held the red chest. Rose told them Doctor Scratch would be on the fifth floor preparing to go home. Caliborn was dormant, at the moment. “You’re physic abilities really do come in handy,” Vriska had pointed out earlier, “I’m glad we have someone who can tell the future with us.”

“I can’t ‘tell the future’,” Rose had argued, “I can simply see which paths are most probably going to be taken.”

Now they stood in the cool September night air, each with their part to play in mind. Jade put a hand out and everybody placed a hand on it. “Remember,” Kanaya reminded them, “We can’t let Caliborn out again.” They nodded. Rose had assured them that while Calliope was in control, their powers should still work. Jade teleported them to the fifth floor.

The hospital was crawling with nurses and staff, especially here in ICU. Vriska transmitted a bubble of deflection around the group; every nurse coming towards them simply turned the other way. It was late, and the halls were quiet. Rose led them to a small room where Doctor Scratch was checking some clipboards. Rose nodded to Dave; he held a hand out like Jade had done. Everybody placed a hand on him, and he froze time.

“There they are,” Terezi said. The doctor looked concerned by the sheet of paper on the clipboard. Rose took a look at it.

“A kid with severe asthma came in two days ago,” Rose figured.

“I wonder if Caliborn is planning anything for them right now,” Dave muttered.

“No,” Rose assured him, “I checked. This is Calliope. If any part of Caliborn is here, then it’s minute; barely conscious.” She looked to Jade and once again they prepared to teleport, this time Jade’s free hand rested on the Doctor.

In a flash they were standing in the center of the helicopter pad on the hospital roof. They were very solemn. This was matter of life and death. It was thought out. They had prepared. Each one of them well knew that they were about to take someone’s life in one way or another. Would the chest kill them or simply imprison them? Which was worse? None of them had answers.

“Is this right?” Dave asked Karkat. They were looking at the stars.

“What else can we do, Strider?” Karkat answered him. Dave shrugged in response.

John’s feelings were along the same lines. “Shouldn’t we at least give Calliope a chance? To say goodbye? I guess…”

“To risky, air head,” Vriska said impatiently, but Terezi put a hand on her shoulder.

“I think John is right.”

Vriska looked around for someone to back her up but no one did. Finally she groaned and looked at Rose, “Got any bright ideas?”

“Yes, actually, I do,” Rose said. “We all need to hold hands,” she instructed. Though Vriska radiated disgust at the new developments, she did hold Terezi’s hand at the end of their line facing Caliborn/Calliope. Terezi held onto Karkat, who held onto Dave, to Rose, to Jade, to John, and ending with Kanaya.

_Here’s the plan,_ Rose projected to all of them, _we’re going to stay connected like this, and from here on out this will be an open channel between Vriska, me, and the Doctor. The rest of you can hear all of it and I can hear all of you. Got it?_

They hear Vriska’s _Got it_ but the other responses were silenced.

_Vriska, if you or I detect even a hint of Caliborn you will seize the doctor, Dave will refreeze time, and we’ll continue with our original plan. Or, if things get out of control, Jade will teleport us all away. Now, John, turn us invisible. I don’t want the shock of all of us to awaken anything._

The unusual sensation of slipping into a gaseous state flowed through them all. When they looked around, only shimmering air met their eyes.

_Good. Okay, as soon as Dave unfreezes time, Vriska I need you to subdue Calliope, not control her, but get her to where she won’t be surprised to see the eight of us materialize. I don’t want to trigger Caliborn’s appearance._

_Subdue, not control, I get it,_ Vriska confirmed.

_Okay, is everyone ready?_

Other affirmations must have accompanied Vriska’s because Rose instructed Dave, _unfreeze it._

The figure in front of them blinked for a moment, but was instantly lulled by Vriska. Rose knew how to keep her mind quite, Vriska didn’t. They heard a softer side of her. It was more of a feeling but words like _shush_ and _you’re safe_ flooded through their minds. The doctor looked through them placidly.

_John, do it now, and slowly._

Little by little solidity took them once again. The doctor’s hazy thoughts had been streaming in through them and now took a turn of _what’s going on?_ The thought was sleepy, not hostile.

“Calliope,” Rose said softy and slowly. It was more of a whisper. The communication was through the mind, not the air. _You’re the girl who-_ “Met you at the hospital on Saturday, yes. We’re here to tell you happened to your brother and yourself and I’m sorry, but you’re not going to like it.”

At the mention of her brother Vriska had to calm her mind more. Obviously Vriska was fighting a battle they couldn’t understand. Under Rose’s words a constant murmur of _everything is alright you are calm you are Calliope Scratch it is only you you are Calliope and you are fine you are safe you are calm_ babbled away.

They could feel Calliope’s sadness. “I feared as much…” Calliope said.

Rose sent her a wave of sympathy before slowly feeding her the images of what had happened. They all saw Caliborn in the warehouse. They all saw Rose being stabbed. She must have borrowed their memories because she possessed images of each of their deaths. Calliope’s terror kept building and building and she now realized what Vriska was doing. Rose showed her what Sollux had told them and what the chest was meant to do and why they were here now.

Calliope stood still as tears flowed down her face. They each could feel it. _So this is what Rose feels…_ Dave thought. He knew she could hear him, she always could. Now wasn’t any different.

“Do it.” Calliope’s words cut through the flurry of emotions surrounding them. Mingled with Vriska’s soothing words, Calliope was panicking inside. _I did this I did this I did this I did this._

“Calliope this was _never_ your fault.” Rose told her. _Vriska she’s slipping just lull her entirely we’re losing her._

“Thank you!” John yelled before Calliope’s sputtering thoughts died out.

_Thank you…_ was the last thing they heard as a whole.

“Do it now, Kanaya,” Vriska said. Kanaya let go of John’s hand and the connection was lost.

With a deep breath, Kanaya tilted the death box to the drooling Doctor and opened the lid. A blinding white light shot out of the chest. They shielded their eyes, even Terezi flinched. Kanaya was thrust backwards a few feet and the lid slammed shut.

For a moment they couldn’t see or speak.

“Did it work?” she asked, blinking.

“No.” The sound of a sword unsheathing rang through the air. Terezi was walking towards a lump on the concrete.

“Wait! It did! It did!” Rose yelled, running to stop Terezi. She stood in between the sword and the body. “It worked! This is just Calliope. _Just Calliope._ See?” Rose grabbed Terezi’s arm and must have shown her the inside of the Doctor’s head because Terezi lowered her sword.

Karkat grasped Dave’s hand. “So… we did it?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Rose said laughing. “We did it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter having been read, may I reiterate. BRO. MOTHERFUCKING. STRIDER. OH MY FUCK.


	17. “Why The Fuck Not?”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alas, all fics must come to an end, this is just my little resolution and what not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Like I said way before, I like completing my fics before posting them, so this is just the last installment of me copying and pasting. Also a restatement, I loath uncompleted fics.

Calliope stirred on the ground below them. “I’ll take her back to her floor,” Jade offered, “and explain a bit.”

“Explain what?” John asked, happy and incredulous.

“I’ll think of something,” Jade said kneeling down besides the woman. They disappeared in a flash of green.

Dave noticed Rose glancing at Kanaya. The other girl sat examining the chest in front of her. She had illuminated herself once more for better lighting. “I’ll be right back,” Dave told Karkat before kissing him on the cheek.

“If this is about Miss Fucking Ogle Eyes over there I’m coming with you,” Karkat responded. Dave sighed and they both approached Rose.

“So…” Dave said as they walked towards Rose.

“Shut up, I know what you’re thinking,” Rose told them.

“Well,” Karkat asked, “Are we on to something or do you just have a habit of madly lusting after any old vampire you meet?”

Rose pursed her lips, looking for words. She then pulled them aside and said quietly, “In the bank… before she died… that was the first time I ever saw the future. And… I saw us. And it was beautiful…” She looked at her feet and shrugged.

“Rose,” Karkat said, putting a hand on her shoulder. Dave was suppressing laughter. Karkat looked like a concerned older brother; he had his ‘serious face’ on. “Kanaya would be lucky to have you as a girlfriend, go and talk to her instead of sending really fucking vague messages and weirdly staring.”

Rose let out a laugh, then a sigh, then a nod, and then went to go sit by the glowing girl.

John had left, floating somewhere, presumably. Vriska was going off to Terezi about tracking down Aradia and figuring out this whole ghost business. Jade was nowhere to be seen.

Dave sat on the edge of the roof and looked out over the city. Karkat sat next to him. “Hey,” Karkat said, “Look at this.” He held up a wrist and let a slow stream of blood pour out. It twirled a bit, poked Dave’s glasses, and retreated back inside Karkat’s arm.

“You figured it out.”

“Yeah, I just had to calm down a bit.”

Vriska’s voice was rising. “…I’m just saying we should check out! See what’s in store for us in Asia! Find out where that fucking chest came from! Think of it: All eight of us, on an adventure! _Eight,_ guys! It’s meant to be! Come on!”

John flew down to meet them, Jade appearing next to him. “That sounds awesome!” John exclaimed.

“We’d have to finish school first,” Jade pointed out. She and John had been dropping through clouds in celebration. Beads of dew clung to her hair and her clothes.

Vriska groaned. “Fine, but next summer, we’re going to Asia.”

“I could do with Asia,” Terezi agreed.

“I’ll have nowhere to be,” Kanaya chimed in.

“Me neither,” Rose added.

“What do you say, Kit Kat, Asia?” Dave asked.

Karkat looked at each of them incredulously. “We are eight fucking immortal beings that haven’t even completed the hell hole we call high school. We’re sitting on a goddamn hospital roof after having _just,_ not even twenty minutes ago mind you, _defeated_ an angry rage monster that created us and now we’re talking about going to another fucking continent to go play ghost busters?” He paused for air whilst making vague hand motions out of pure disbelief.

“…is that a yes?” Vriska asked.

“Why the fuck not?” Karkat said before slumping onto his boyfriend’s shoulder.

“Yes!” John yelled before shooting off into the sky.

Slowly, the heroes dispersed until it was just the two of them sitting on the roof in silence. No words needed to be said. Only the city, orange and white lights painting the landscape neon before them, provided any noise.

“Dave…”

“Yeah, Karkat?”

“Thanks for spending the shit storm with me.”

“You sappy fuck, come here.” Dave leaned over and kissed him.

The night went on and so did they. Time and blood, prepared to find out the secrets of what they had become, immortal or otherwise, sat in silence. Adventures and danger and mystery awaited them, but for now, the city was enough.  For now, intertwined fingers and two beating hearts made everything okay.

“Dude, you know we’re superheroes, right?”

Karkat looked at Dave. “No fuck, you idiot.” The noise of the city ceased, the cars stopped, and the wind fell still.

Karkat sighed and studied the stars peeping in between still clouds. Whatever he may be, superhero, god, or whatever else, he was happy. And he was sure, whatever shit storm may lie ahead, he had time on his side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The end! I really hope you guys liked it and I'm really happy people have read it! Thanks so much, I'm glad you got to the end. I like ending things like this because I think it adds an air of mystery while still tying up all the plot odds and ends. I'm leaving Asia up to the readers imagination because seriously, I'd have to like rewrite the entirety of Homestuck in order to make it work and I've already taken to much creative liberty to do that, so this is the end. Thanks again for reading! I'm sure I'll end up writing something else soon!

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first major fic, so thanks for reading.


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